Despite tight gates, phones keep ringing behind bars, 14 mobiles seized from Ferozepur Jail
Ferozepur, November 3, 2025: The Central Jail authorities at Ferozepur conducted two surprise search operations on November 2, which laid bare a stunning breach of prison walls. In the first sweep, staff recovered six mobile phones, four of them old keypad models and two touchscreen devices, along with a data cable hidden among the belongings of six inmates.
Under-trial prisoners Gurcharan Singh, Jagraj Singh, Karandeep Singh and Booby, plus convicted inmates Nahna and Dalbir Singh, now face fresh charges under Section 52-A of the Prisons Act. Sub-Inspector Sharma Singh has taken charge of the probe.
Hours later, a second raid in common areas turned up eight more mobiles, a charger, eight cigarette packs, 309 sachets of arda liquor powder and 442 capsules believed to be intoxicants. With no one claiming the stash, police booked an unidentified accused under Sections 42 and 52 of the Prisons Act. The same officer, Sharma Singh, will dig deeper.
The day’s haul of fourteen phones pushed the jail’s 2025 seizure tally to 576, continuing a dizzying climb from just 70 recoveries in 2019. Year by year the numbers have doubled and redoubled: 130 in 2020, 265 in 2021, 437 in 2022, 469 in 2023 and 510 last year. Mobile phones remain the prize contraband, letting inmates phone home, issue threats or run extortion rings from inside.
Three layers of gates, frisking and scanners have failed to stop the flow. Sources point to sloppy checks at entry points and quiet nods from staff during visitor hours. Surprise raids deserve credit for the rising seizure graph, yet follow-up investigations rarely go far; moving prisoners out for questioning is seen as a security risk too big to take.
Until full-body scanners, round-the-clock jammers and lie-detector vetting of guards become routine, every ringing phone behind bars will mock the locks that are supposed to keep the outside world out.