Dhaka: Bangladesh authorities have cut down family visits for VIP prisoners, mostly politicians arrested in the military-backed government's anti-graft drive, and decided to shift many of them to prisons outside the capital for alleged violation of jail rules.
The government is also shifting many of the high-profile prisoners who were admitted to hospitals back to prison.
Four former lawmakers of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami were taken back yesterday from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University to different jails for violating jail codes, officials said here today.
A number of influential prisoners would now be allowed visit by their relatives only once a month instead of every week while several others would be transferred to jails outside Dhaka as they were found using cell phones in violation of prison rules, they said.
"The authorities have cut the privileges of some of the high-profile prisoners in meeting visitors as they violated the jail code," Deputy Inspector General of Prisons Major Shamsul Haider Siddique said.
He said investigations were also underway against persons, including jail guards, who supplied the detainees cellphones, SIM cards and i-Pod.
A new code was also being planned for doctors and others concerned who treat the prisoners at hospitals outside the prison, Siddiqui said.
The jail authorities earlier this month decided to install cellphone jammers in prisons.
