Annoyed at the rising crime graph and jailbirds having a free run from behind the bars, the Patna high court on Tuesday observed that the situation appeared to have gone beyond control.

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Nagendra Roy and Justice S N Hussain made the observation when Inspector General of Police (Prisons) Deepak Kumar Singh told the court that efforts were being made to curb criminals from running their gangs using mobile phones from jails.

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The bench expressed annoyance at reports of criminals making extortion threats to professionals from behind the bars despite its instruction to the state government to stop it immediately. "The situation appears to have gone beyond control," it observed.

The court was hearing a PIL by Indian Medical Association (Bihar), which sought security saying criminals were targeting doctors for extortion.