Berhampur, May 9: Six mobile phones, three SIM cards, two knives and Rs 66,260 in cash apart from ganja pouches and cigarettes were seized from the cell of Ramesh Jena, the former Congress MLA from Sanakhemundi in a raid at the circle jail here today.

The raids, led by Amitabh Thakur, the inspector general of police (southern range), also led to the recovery of two table and pedestal fans from the ex-MLA's cell (No. 22), who is lodged at the Berhampur Circle Jail in connection with a series of criminal cases.

The seizure, including 80 cigarette packets and 17 pouches of ganja, came in the wake of various incidents of undertrial prisoners being provided with facilities at hospitals and courts in connivance with cops and other authorities.

Three police personnel were put under suspension when some accused prisoners in the money deposit collection fraud were found freely mingling and talking to their relatives and family members at Capital Hospital, where they were apparently under treatment.

A former BJD MLA, also accused of links with a Ponzi company, was found talking on his mobile phone for a long time while being produced in a Bhubaneswar court. Another accused in the money deposit scam also had the audacity to give an interview to a local TV channel under similar circumstances.

The raids that were conducted at the Berhampur jail lasted for three hours and also led to the recovery of 1,200 gutka pouches, net cash worth Rs 83,430, a gupti (sharp weapon), two knives, 17 lighters, 100 matchboxes and 200 bidi packets from other cells.

"The raid, led by the inspector general of police began at 6am and went on till 9am," said Ashish Singh, the superintendent of police.

Three platoons of police in presence of Prem Chandra Chowdhary, the Ganjam collector, Laxmikant Sethi, the sub-collector of Berhampur, tehsildar Rashmi Ranjan Nayak and several other senior police officers took part in the raid.

"We had prior information that the inmates were possessing a good amount of banned substances. We have seized a good amount of cash and narcotics. We will initiate stringent action against those involved after an inquiry," said Thakur.

"We are trying to plug the loopholes. We had extensive reports that phone calls were being made from the jail to some private persons for the purpose of extorting money," Sethi said.