Mumbai, June 25: One of the country’s most sensitive jails will have video-conferencing facilities to tackle inmates’ incessant attempts to escape.

The aim is to handle court cases involving the inmates from within the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai, which houses a host of Dawood Ibrahim henchmen.

Built in 1926 for 800 prisoners, the jail now holds over 3,000 inmates — who in the past have indulged in bloody fights — creating more headaches for the prison authorities. Recently, Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar was beaten up by four other inmates, leading to fears of gang showdowns inside the jail.

After a tour of the high-security prison yesterday, Maharashtra home minister Kripa Shankar Singh decided that urgent measures were needed for inmates’ security and to curb criminal activities masterminded from the cells of dreaded dons.

The state has decided to instal cellphone jammers in the jail to prevent underworld operatives from carrying on with nefarious activities. Singh said the jammers were necessitated by increasing reports of imprisoned gangsters using cellphones to conduct their outside operations.

The video-conferencing facility, to be inaugurated by next month, would help the police department deal with the problem of transporting undertrials to court. The videos would be connected to the magistrate’s court, the sessions court and Bombay High Court, thus effectively dealing with undertrials’ attempts to flee the jail.

Arthur Road prison superintendent Swati Sathe said Maharashtra would be the first state to instal mobile jammers in jail and the fourth — after Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan — to go for video-conferencing.

The minister visited the jail after sub-inspector Shivshankar Patil and constable Bhausaheb Patil braved an offensive to foil attempts by two undertrials to attack senior jail employees. The policemen have been awarded Rs 150,000 in cash.

The jail authorities said members of the Chhota Shakeel gang had paid the undertrials Rs 10,000 for the purpose.

The Arthur Road jail has a history of violent reprisals by gangsters, both inside and outside. “It is high-risk in every sense of the word,” a senior police officer said.