Panaji: Drugs, chillums, mobile phones, fancy razors, exotic condoms... No it’s not the flea market we are talking about. Welcome to the standard fare in Goa’s oldest and most secure prison.
The revelation at the Aguada Central Jail came when a serial killer, Mahanand Naik, 45, who was originally imprisoned for murdering more than a dozen women but has been acquitted in six cases, was accused of harassing a woman he had tried to rape two years before his arrest by text messaging and phoning her.
“This amount to harassment of the victim, that is why we filed the complaint,” said Auda Viegas, the convener of Bailancho Ekvott, the women’s rights NGO that brought the incident to the attention of the police.
The victim’s deposition is key because Mahanand has already been acquitted in six of the murder cases, has appealed against the life sentence in one case and is being tried in the other five cases, as well as the rape case.
Viegas said that Mahanand, who is already married, told the victim that he would marry her when he was out of prison.
Jail Superintendent Gopal Parsenkar said that the prison authorities were examining the charges made in the Bailancho Ekvott complaint.
“It is an official matter,” he said. “I cannot say anything. But we are looking into the complaint.”
Although a probe has been ordered by the police and prison authorities, the incident once again brings into focus the smuggling of contraband in the prison.
An official said that articles discovered in raids include a makeshift chillum, knives, erotic decks of playing cards, cigarettes, drugs, condoms and mobile sim cards.
In 2010, the Inspector General of Prisons (IGP) launched an investigation after David Driham, alias Dudu, who had been arrested on a drug peddling charge, had been found updating a Facebook account from the jail. Driham has since been released.
