New Delhi, June 27: The knock came around midnight last Monday, giving a drunk deputy jailer of Tihar absolutely no time to tuck the sex workers away.

Ravinder Mehra, the assistant superintendent of jail no. 8, was last week caught entertaining two sex workers in his official quarters on the high-security prison premises, possibly the first time such an incident has been reported in Tihar.

Police sources said Mehra, whose wife and kids had left for Bihar for the summer break, had asked constable Raj Kumar to arrange the women and smuggle them into his quarters.

“It was a major security lapse. We were shocked to find two sex workers inside his quarters. He and the constable have been suspended and an inquiry has been ordered,” Neeraj Kumar, the director-general, prisons, told The Telegraph.

The sources said senior jail officials had raided Mehra’s quarters on a tip-off and caught both him and the constable drinking and having a good time with the women. They refused to give further details.

“Mehra asked a constable to arrange the women. The constable contacted pimps who brought the women along in the evening. The constable then helped them enter the jail and escorted them to Mehra’s quarters, where all of them got drunk and entertained themselves,” an official who was part of a team set up to probe the incident said.

The official said the security lapse was all the more glaring as many high-profile prisoners were in Tihar at the moment, such as former telecom minister A. Raja, DMK legislator Kanimozhi and Suresh Kalmadi.

“Criminals and undertrials have earlier smuggled cellphones and booze into the jail with the connivance of officials. But getting sex workers inside is too much,” he said.

Kumar, the DG prisons, said a five-member panel had been formed to keep tabs on jail officials. “The team will keep close watch on the activities of jail officials and their subordinates. Strict action will be taken against those flouting jail manual guidelines,” he said.