bengaluru did you know that it is mandatory to conduct election inside prisons too and prisoners are allotted portfolios accordinglybut no one knows about this including 80 per cent of the prison officials in the now infamous bengaluru central jail which is also called as parappana agrahara jailelection rule is for democracy inside prison and there will be 6 different portfolios related to catering and food for jail birds prisoners are the voters and candidates winners are called panchis and the entire community of prisoners is under the panchis whore their elected rulers outgoing prison dig d roopa alleged that jail superintendent krishna kumars followers became the panchis of parappana agrahara without conducting election for the past one yearthose panchis were not elected officially theyre using muscle power and with help of jailers they got these positions d roopa saidprison polls are held through muscle and money power along with political influence as a result prisoners can get away with going on strikes occasionallyit is the panchis job to maintain the jail canteen this has turned into a highly lucrative business for the prisoners who earn more than a lakh rupees per month by running the canteen candidates for the post of panchi spend lakhs of rupees for the jail election since one victory qualifies them to rule over the prison for 6 monthsin winter there is maximum demand for tea and coffee if 4000 jailbirds drink teacoffee 210 times in a day they will get nearly rs 10000 profit per day some inmates cook for themselves for which they will purchase items from the jail canteen itself if a minimum 2000 convicts do business in canteen it will bring a huge profit for the panchisfor this very reason everyone from the jailer to eminent officers want a slice of this highly profitable pie actually this is not corruption its an understanding business that has taken place for 70 years said some prisoners who are fighting to change the prison for a good causeshivakumar rakesh venkatarama putta nagesha and some others are the panchis in jail theyve been convicted for life for serious crimes like murder and so no one in the prison dares to speak against themread this story in kannada