Seven booked, including two prison staff, over phone supplied to Prajwal Revanna

The case centres on a phone recovered from the barrack where Revanna was lodged. Investigators tracing the device and the SIM card have found links to the DJ Halli area of Bengaluru, and are examining the roles of intermediaries, inmates and prison staff, officers said.

How police say the phone got in

Parappana Agrahara police inspector B Naveen said investigators believe the device passed through a chain involving both inmates and prison personnel.

"According to our investigation, the mobile phone allegedly reached Prajwal through intermediaries, including prison inmates and personnel," Naveen told Hindustan Times. He said Siddiq and Taufiq, reportedly accused in the KG Halli and DJ Halli violence cases, are suspected to have assisted in arranging the device.

Naveen set out a specific sequence and specific sums. "We suspect Taufiq purchased the mobile phone while undergoing treatment at Jayanagar Hospital," he said. "A SIM card was subsequently obtained in Siddiq's name and allegedly taken into the prison for use."

He added that police suspect Revanna paid around ₹1 lakh for the phone and ₹50,000 for the SIM card, and that the investigation is continuing.

The investigation

A special team was formed under DCP Narayan after the phone was detected. The inquiry has since examined allegations that phones and SIM cards were being brought into the prison through a network involving warders and inmates.

Police said the investigation is focused on how the phone entered the prison and who facilitated its use — a narrower question than who used it, and the one that determines whether this is an isolated lapse or a standing arrangement.

Revanna was sent back to jail on 10 September after two days in custody, Naveen said.

The call records

Investigators have traced SIM cards connected to the alleged network to Andhra Pradesh. One was reportedly purchased in Punganur, and police are examining its call records.

The call detail records allegedly contain calls to several women and to family members. Police are expected to issue notices to some of those contacted and to question them during the investigation.

That line of inquiry is the one with the widest potential reach, and also the one most likely to take time: establishing who was called is straightforward, establishing the purpose of each call is not.

Money and electronic evidence

Police are also examining financial transactions relating to the alleged purchase of the phone and SIM card, alongside electronic evidence that could establish how the communication network operated from inside the prison.

Financial tracing is what would connect the alleged payments to the people said to have arranged the device. Without it, the sums the inspector described remain a suspicion rather than a documented transaction.

Not the first case at the prison

A separate case had earlier been registered at Parappana Agrahara police station against two people over alleged illegal mobile phone use inside the prison.

Revanna had previously lost VIP cell privileges after a phone and a pen drive were found in the prison.

The current investigation is examining the wider chain through which devices and SIM cards were allegedly brought into the facility, rather than treating the recovered handset as a standalone discovery.

Status

Those named have been booked, which in Indian practice means an offence has been registered against them. No charge sheet has been reported, and the allegations have not been tested in court.

The specific figures given by the inspector — the ₹1 lakh and the ₹50,000 — are stated by him as suspicions under investigation rather than as established facts.