MHA explores 'seismic sensor' technology to check jail tunnelling

NEW DELHI: Criminals digging their way out of jails isn’t just movie stuff anymore. As this poses a major security challenge, the home ministry wants to use technology to put an end to unauthorised tunnelling activities near jails.

On Thursday, private technology firms will give a presentation in Delhi to the heads of various police organisations and prison in-charges from across the country on equipment that can be deployed to stop tunnel-escape plots.

The home ministry is exploring installation of seismic sensors at various locations inside jails so that any tunnelling activity can be detected, an official said. “They are used abroad.”

The idea, officials said, is to turn to technology to provide fool-proof security as jail officials have often been found involved when such jailbreaks happen.

The immediate trigger for this move is a 2013 incident in Gujarat's Sabarmati Jail where a 213-foot-long tunnel was detected just in time to stop, as the police said, a daring escape planned by SIMI chief Safdar Nagori and over a dozen terrorists who were arrested for the 2008 serial blasts in Ahmedabad. The accused, on the pretext of working in the prison garden, had dug the tunnel from their barracks and disposed of sand in the garden, police had said.

The most daring case of a jailbreak through a tunnel was reported in 2004 in Chandigarh when three people accused of killing former Punjab CM Beant Singh – Jagtar Sinha Hawara, Jagtar Singh Tara and Paramjeet Singh Bheora, along with their cook Devi Lal – escaped from the jail after digging a 104-foot long tunnel.