Tihar to be first prison in country to install body scanner

New Delhi, Jan 5: Tihar Prisons here will become the first jail in the country to install a full body scanner on its premises to check smuggling of prohibited items like narcotics, mobiles and weapons by inmates.

Officials said that two rounds of trials have been successfully completed in the country's largest jail.

"We will be the first in whole of India to have a body scanner on our premises. This we will install to check smuggling of prohibited items like drugs and narcotics, mobiles, currency notes and weapons by inmates in their body cavities," said R N Sharma, Deputy Inspector General of Tihar Prisons.

"These prohibited items cannot be detected by normal search or with help of metal detectors," he said.

The device gives an image of the body through their clothing to look for hidden objects without making physical contact with the inmates.

They are being increasingly used at airports and train stations in many countries to curb the smuggling of prohibited items.

Sunil Gupta, spokesperson Tihar Prisons said, "The trial runs were conducted in women's prisons (Jail No. 6) and jails that houses undertrials (Jail no 8 and 9). Prisoners lodged in these prisons are a notorious lot."

The women's cell of Tihar has maximum complaints of illegal use of cell phones.

"This is due to the possible inability of metal sensors to check for prohibited items that they carry inside body cavities," he said.

Sharma said that they are in the process of acquiring this scanner that will cost them around Rs 2.5-3 crore.

"Trial run is over and now other formalities are in process. They include looking into technical specifications, inviting global tenders, getting a green signal from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board amongst others," he said.

However, an AERB official said that "the radiation emitted by the full body scanner needs to be studied before we give a go ahead to them."

PTI