Anantapur: Kadapa prison has been the venue for red sanders smugglers, local, interstate and international. As many as 1,270 prisoners, both convicted and on judicial remand, are housed in the Central Prison of Kadapa.
Nearly 12 top international smugglers including Kollam Gangi Reddy and smugglers from north India are lodged at Kadapa, which is reportedly leading in largescale illicit activities. There have been instances of drugs, liquor and mobile phones being supplied to smugglers with the alleged cooperation of staff at various levels.
On Wednesday, prison authorities recovered a packet of ganja and four mobile phones from two prisoners, B. Sreenu and K. Veeraiah, during checks.
The Central Prison authorities had also suspended a warden for forcing prisoners to get their families to get liquor and mobile phones one-and-a-half months ago.
Outside, the police making its efforts, sometimes with a deadly outcome. Special police teams nabbed top smugglers by raiding dens in New Delhi, Rajasthan, Bengaluru and other parts of the country.
Police constable Prasada Naidu attached to the Kadapa police was killed in a road accident near Bijapur in Karnataka recently when he was in a truck bringing back seized red sanders logs from north Indian states.
Sub Inspector Rajeswar Reddy was seriously inju-red. Special teams of Kadapa police conducted raids in Delhi, Jaipur and Kanpur and arrested three alleged smugglers and seized 11.3 tonnes of red sander logs.
However, situation reported differs at prison with police in Kadapa. The scarcity of staff was reportedly one of the reasons for the illicit activities. About 59 posts are lying vacant.
Jail superintendent Govindarajulu said stringent action is initiated against the staff if found involved in illicit activities. "We keep a constant vigil on all barracks in particular the sensitive ones where International smugglers lodged," he said.
In all, 320 wood cutters whose trial is in various stages are lodged at the Central Prison. The Kadapa Central Prison is 'houseful' with woodcutters and smugglers apart from prisoners connected with other crimes. Secu-rity has been beefed up for smugglers who are facing a life threat. Kollam Gangi Reddy was shifted to the prison to serve out his remaining 1.8-year sentence in a previous case. Prison authorities are ensuring his safety.
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