SIM cards, a Wi-Fi device, three mobile phones, a pen drive, and electronic accessories were allegedly found in the cell of Aftab Ansari, the mastermind of the January 2002 terrorist attack on the American Center in Calcutta.
Kolkata Police have started a probe based on a complaint lodged at Hastings police station by senior correctional affairs department officials who found 31,000 inside one of Ansari's shirts at the Presidency jail.
Officials said the money was hidden inside a separate pocket stitched into the shirt. "We have initiated an investigation," a senior Kolkata Police officer said.
Five people, including four Kolkata Police constables and a security guard, were killed when two motorcycle-borne men opened fire with automatic rifles on security personnel outside the American Center on Chowringhee Road on January 22, 2002.
The attack took place around 6.15am during the morning change of guard.
The Dubai-based Asif Reza Commando Force, which allegedly maintained links with Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, claimed responsibility for the attack. Police said Aftab co-founded the outfit with Amir Reza Khan.
"Aftab is in a high-security ward inside the correctional home, and apart from other items, two routers were also seized," the senior officer
said.
Sources said on August 23, a team of officials raided the Presidency correctional home between 6pm and 8.15pm, when all inmates were in their respective wards and cells.
"All the items were carefully tucked in different nooks, corners, clothes, and bedding," a police officer said.
Aftab has been housed in a high-security prison block since May 3, 2002, following his extradition from Dubai for allegedly masterminding the Khadim shoe baron abduction in 2001 and the 2002 American Center terror attack.
Over the last two-plus decades, he has been held under varying layers of surveillance across two major facilities: first at Alipore and later at the Presidency correctional home.
Months after he was lodged at Alipore correctional home following his extradition, a surprise raid in his cell yielded a mobile phone with an active SIM card.
In May, within days of the new government taking over the reins of the state, two officials of the correctional affairs department were suspended after a surprise raid at the Presidency correctional home yielded 23 mobile phones.