Jailor of Ajmer prison, 3 middlemen among four arrested in bribery racket

The arrest of four men including a jailor of Rajasthan’s Ajmer central jail on Thursday on Friday has revealed that a jail bribery racket that was unearthed in July involved payouts of ₹25 lakh per month, said an anti-corruption bureau (ACB) official.

Two jailors, including the one who was arrested on Thursday, had been under the ACB’s scanner since the racket came to light in July. The ACB official said various bank accounts that were suspected to have been used in the bribery racket are also under its scanner.

The ACB official said that while analysing transcripts of call records of the jailors involved in bribery racket arrested in past details of various accounts in which bribery amount was deposited were obtained.

“While analysing the transcripts details of the racket, six bank accounts had surfaced in which the family members fo prisoners used to deposit the bribe money. Further, through these bank accounts money was transferred to the jailors as part of the bribery racket,” said Madandan Singh, Additional superintendent of ACB , Ajmer region,

“We have arrested one such bank account holders identified as Sita Ram on Friday,” he said

Sita Ram is said to be a middle man,

“In last few months around ₹3.5 lakh were transferred by the family members of the inmates. Similarly, ₹nine lakh bribery amount was obtained from account of another middle man named Rajendra Choudhary who was arrested on Thursday,” Singh said.

The three men arrested on Thursday have been identified as Jaswant Singh (42), jailor of the central jail, Rajendra Choudhary (24) and Anil Choudhary (27).

Rajendra and Anil, on behalf of Jaswant Singh, collected money from relatives and family members of inmates in lieu of providing them various products and services banned inside jail. The investigation is still on.

The racket is estimated to collect around ₹25 lakh per month.

Another senior ACB official on condition of anonymity said that the relatives had to pay money for various products like tobacco, cigarettes, among others.

“The rate charged for one packet of cigarette was between ₹12000 and ₹15000 and a packet of tobacco would cost between ₹300 and ₹500,” the officer added.

The ACB had busted the bribery racket in July this year. The bribes were used to facilitate various kind of services to jail inmates. So far 13 people have been arrested including jail employees, two prisoners and other relatives of a prisoner since the racket was busted.

The ACB officials said that the staff of other jails are also on their radar for similar complaints.