Bihar jail inmate swallows mobile phone during checking

Gopalganj: In a bizarre incident an inmate of Bihar's Gopalganj district jail reportedly swallowed a mobile phone during checking out of fear of being caught by prison officers, an official said on Monday. Qaishar Ali, the prisoner, swallowed the phone on Saturday during an inspection.

The matter, however, came to light on Sunday after Ali developed extreme pain in his stomach.

"The prisoner informed the jail authorities and narrated the sequence of events. He was immediately rushed to Gopalganj district hospital where the x-ray of the inmate revealed the presence of a foreign particle in his abdomen,” Manoj Kumar, Gopalganj jail superintendent told PTI on Monday.

Salam Siddiqui, the doctor at the hospital's emergency ward said, “The prisoner was admitted to the hospital due to stomach pain. The x-ray of his stomach was taken and the presence of foreign particles was visible during the examination. There is a need to investigate it thoroughly”.

A medical board was constituted by the hospital and the man has referred the prisoner to Patna Medical College and Hospital for further treatment.

Ali was arrested by Gopalganj police on January 17, 2020, under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act). He has been in jail for the last three years.

The use of mobile phones by inmates inside Bihar prisons has raised eyebrows over security officers' credentials. Around 35 cellphones, seven sim cards, and 17 cellphone chargers were seized during raids conducted in jails across the state in March 2021. The raids were conducted on Katihar, Buxar, Gopalganj, Nalanda, Hajipur, Ara, Jehanabad, and some other jails in the state.