Kerala Prisons to deactivate call forwarding to prevent misuse of phone calls
Kerala Prison Department restricts inmate calls by requiring consent forms, banning call forwarding, and verifying relatives' phone numbers to prevent fraud and unauthorised communications.
Kerala Prison Department restricts inmate calls by requiring consent forms, banning call forwarding, and verifying relatives' phone numbers to prevent fraud and unauthorised communications.
Kerala Prison Department restricts inmate calls by requiring consent forms, banning call forwarding, and verifying relatives' phone numbers to prevent fraud and unauthorised communications.
Kottayam: The Kerala Prison Department is introducing restrictions to prevent the misuse of phone calls made by inmates. The department has decided to curb the practice of call forwarding, which was allegedly being used by inmates under the pretext of calling relatives from prison. Relatives and inmates will now have to submit a consent form for this purpose.
The application must include the inmate’s name, Aadhaar number, ID number and cell block number, along with the phone numbers of three relatives the inmate wishes to call and their consent.
Relatives will also have to submit an affidavit stating that the call-forwarding facility on their mobile phones has been completely deactivated and that they will receive calls from the inmate directly. The prison department will verify that call forwarding has been disabled on the three numbers provided by the inmate.
The decision follows instances in which relatives were found to be forwarding calls received from prisons to other numbers, enabling inmates to engage in fraud and other unauthorised communications.
The relatives’ phone numbers will be added to the restricted calling system only after prison authorities verify them by calling the numbers.
Once call forwarding has been deactivated, telecom service providers will not be allowed to reactivate the facility without specific permission from prison authorities.