Alarmed by reports that some prohibited articles were being supplied to dreaded criminals in the jail, a police team raided the jail and recovered cash, cellphones, TV sets and liquor, Purnea District Magistrate Pankaj Kumar told PTI.

The articles were recovered from notorious gangsters, including the North Liberation Army supremo Shankar Singh and his accomplice Banti Singh, besides some other undertrials. Altogether seven cellular phone sets, three colour TVs, Rs 75,000 in cash and several bottles of liquor were seized, he said.

Mobile phones, knives, ganja in Bihar jails

According to official sources, the district authorities are planning to shift some dreaded criminals lodged at Purnia jail to some other prison after the seizure. When contacted, Inspector General (jails) Deepak Kumar Singh told PTI in Patna that any action against the officials of the jail will be taken only after receiving the report of the District Magistrate.

The Bihar jail administration has been in the line of fire of the Patna High Court recently in the wake of complaints about jail inmates running kidnapping and extortion rackets from behind the bars.

The court had recently ordered frequent raids in jails to check activities of the inmates and in one such raid in the Beur central jail in the capital, a mobile phone was seized from controversial RJD MP Pappu Yadav.