Lucknow: After a video of prisoners brandishing firearms in the Unnao prison went viral, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh transferred 21 jail officials and 15 IAS officers.
According to a statement issued here on Thursday night by Director General (Prisons) Anand Kumar, some of the jail officials who have been transferred are Ravikant Singh from Central Jail Agra to Jhansi District Jail, Alok Kumar Shukla posted at Central Jail Bareilly to District Jail Fatehpur, while Dharampal Singh has been transferred to Naini Central Jail (Prayagraj) from Sultanpur District Jail.
No jail official from Unnao District Jail was mentioned in the transfer list.
Sources said that a proposal has also been sent to the Home Department for the transfer of the inmates to some other jail.
In Unnao, departmental proceedings have been initiated against four jail officials on grounds of laxity and dereliction of duty. A show-cause notice has been issued to the prison superintendent and the jailor. The inmates seen with firearms will also be shifted to other jails.
Meanwhile, the state government also transferred 15 IAS officers also on late Thursday.
Nitin Ramesh Gokarna, Principal Secretary Housing and Urban Planning, was also holding charge of PWD but now the charge of principal secretary, housing and urban planning has been given to Dinesh Chaturvedi.
Kalpana Awasthi, serving as Principal Secretary, Excise, as well as Forest and Environment, has been relieved of excise charge which has been entrusted to Sanjay Bhoosreddy.
Arvind Kumar Chaurasia, Manoj Kumar and Ravindra Kumar Mandar have been posted as municipal commissioners of Meerut, Jhansi and Mathura-Vrindavan, respectively.
The viral video
In the video that went viral on social media, two inmates were seen flaunting a country-made pistol, prompting the state government to initiate action against four officials of the Unnao district jail.
The UP Home Department, however, Wednesday came up with a bizarre clarification, saying the pistol was made of "clay" and looked real as one of the two inmates was a "good painter".
The video of the inmates-- Amrish and Gaurav Pratap Singh, alias Ankur-- was circulated on social media on June 23 and the state government had termed the entire sequence of events serious.
A proposal has also been sent to the Home Department for the transfer of the inmates to some other jail.
Meanwhile, UP Cabinet Minister Siddhartha Nath Singh said no one would be allowed to take the law into his hands.
Earlier in the day, the Samajwadi Party had termed the incident an "open challenge" to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The party alleged the jails in the state were in the "pocket" of criminals.
"Uttar Pradesh ki jail me kuch bhi ho sakta hai. Unnao jail se mukhyamatri ko khula challenge. Raebareli jail me lag rahi kaidi ki adalat. Apradhiyon ki jeb me mukhyamantri ki jail! (Anything can happen in UP jails. It's an open challenge to the CM from the Unnao jail. In the Rae Bareli jail, criminals are holding a court. The CM's jail is in the pocket of criminals), the party said in a tweet.
Commenting on the issue, party spokesman Sharvendra Bikram Singh said criminal ruled the roost in the jail.
Additional Director General (Prisons) Anand Kumar had said, "In the probe, it was found that the incident took place in collusion with some jail officials to put pressure on the jail administration."
"Head Jail Warders Mata Prasad and Hemraj and Jail Warders Awadhesh Sahu and Saleem Khan have been found colluding with the inmates. Action is being initiated against them as per rules," he had said, adding that the video dated back to February.
"Inmate Amrish was brought to the Unnao jail from Meerut, while Gaurav was transferred from Lucknow," he said.
In a statement, the Home Department said, "During the probe, it was found that Gaurav is a very good painter and the pistol shown in the video is made of clay."
"Apart from this, all the food items, which are seen in the video, are regular items, which are given to the inmates. None of the items were brought from outside or are objectionable," it added.
The statement also said that Amrish, a resident of Meerut, was serving life term in a case of loot and murder while Gaurav, who hails from Rae Bareli, was named in similar cases.
Several such incidents have taken place in the recent past.
A video of four inmates partying and consuming liquor inside the Sultanpur district jail had gone viral on social media on June 19.
Similarly, on June 18, a video of a criminal harassing inmates in the Rae Bareli jail had gone viral.
On June 6, two undertrials were seen talking over cell phones and partying inside the Ghazipur district jail in a video on social media.
On June 5, Naini Central Jail inmates were seen partying and consuming liquor in a video.
(With inputs from IANS and PTI.)
