Daijiworld Media Network – Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Nov 9: Serious security lapses and allegations of preferential treatment have surfaced at Parappana Agrahara Central Jail after videos emerged showing notorious inmates, including an ISIS recruiter, a serial rapist-murderer, and a gold smuggler, using mobile phones and watching television inside the prison.
In one clip, Zuhaib Hameed Shakeel Manna, an alleged ISIS recruiter, is seen scrolling on a phone while a TV or radio blares in the background, talking to someone, and enjoying tea.
According to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Zuhaib Manna, along with co-conspirators, raised funds, radicalised Muslim youth via the Quran Circle Group, recruited them, and illegally sent them to Syria through Turkey to join ISIS.
"Zuhaib Manna had used his contacts to motivate and radicalise many impressionable Muslim youth by showing them videos depicting atrocities against Muslims in Syria," the NIA stated.
Another clip shows Umesh Reddy, accused in over 18 cases of rape and murder, using two Android phones and a keypad mobile, while a TV set is visible in his barracks. His death sentence was commuted by the Supreme Court in 2022 to 30 years imprisonment without remission. Although he claimed mental illness, medical examinations confirmed he was mentally sound.
Pictures of Tarun Raju, arrested in connection with the Ranya Rao gold smuggling case, show him using a phone and cooking inside the jail. Tarun, caught while attempting to flee to Geneva, is alleged to have masterminded a gold smuggling network supplying gold in Dubai to Ranya Rao, the daughter of a senior IPS officer.
Reacting to the revelations, chief minister Siddaramaiah assured that the incidents would be investigated and necessary action taken.
The prisons department has launched an inquiry. Acting on orders from the director general of prisons, ADGP (Prisons) P V Anand Reddy visited Parappana Agrahara Jail to conduct an on-site inspection, questioning several inmates, prison officials, and staff regarding the leaked visuals.
Preliminary findings indicate that the videos, reportedly recorded between 2023 and 2025, show inmates holding mobile phones while sitting in barracks. Authorities are investigating how the phones entered the high-security facility, who provided them, when the videos were recorded, and who leaked them to the media.
The chief superintendent of the central prison has been directed to file separate complaints at the Parappana Agrahara police station and take legal action against all involved. Additionally, the deputy inspector general of prisons (South Zone) has been tasked with conducting a departmental inquiry and submitting a report.