In the recent high security Nabha jailbreak case, the police are still probing how the accused conspired and broke away from the jail to escape custody. A senior official of Punjab police confirmed that it has been learnt that technology was used to discuss the jailbreak plan with each other and its execution. He added that they had used social networking sites like Facebook and Skype to talk to each other about the plan. He also said that jail officials are at fault as they allowed them to use mobile phones in the jail.
With the jailbreak, it has also put a question mark over the intelligence of the Punjab police on how they failed to act on the information of misuse of mobile phones in the jail. The Sunday Guardian has got the FIRs in which inmates in various jails were booked for misusing mobile phones. All the reports have been marked to senior officers. The question is now being raised how the Punjab police took the information of misuse of phones in jails for granted.
Meanwhile, based on the interrogation of the arrested “mastermind”, Palwinder Singh Pinda, the Patiala police on Wednesday arrested a man for aiding last Sunday’s Nabha jailbreak in which six criminals had escaped. Gurpreet Singh of Mangewal village in Moga, arrested from Patran, provided logistical and monetary support, besides shelter to the men who attacked the jail, said senior superintendent of police (SSP) Gurmeet Singh Chauhan. Gurpreet was held when he was trying to escape eventually to Uttar Pradesh, said police. A pistol, some other ammunition, and a car were seized from him. Meanwhile, Pinda was sent to police remand for 11 days after he was presented before a judge on Tuesday night. The police also got remand till 9 December of the jail’s then assistant superintendent Bhim Singh, warder Jagmeet Singh and sweetshop owner Tejinder Sharma on Wednesday evening.
In another development, Punjab police detained two persons in connection with the jailbreak, one of whom is the friend of an escapee, from Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan adjoining Punjab. Gurpreet Brar and his brother-in-law Angrej Singh were traced to Kishanpura village last night. Brar, a resident of Ferozepur in Punjab, is a friend of Gurpreet Sekhon who is among those who escaped from the high-security jail in Punjab on Sunday.
Police said they were traced on the basis of their mobile phones’ location and taken to Punjab for questioning.
Cops suspended in Haryana
The Haryana police on Wednesday sent in-charges of three posts in Karnal to police lines for dereliction of duty after Palwinder Singh Pinda, who facilitated the escape of six prisoners from Nabha jail, managed to pass through Karnal in an SUV. “Chowki in-charges of Sitamai, Ramnagar and Munak have been sent to police lines,” Karnal SP Pankaj Nain said. Pinda escaped in his SUV to Uttar Pradesh after passing through Kaithal and Karnal in Haryana after assisting in a sensational jailbreak in Patiala in Punjab on Sunday. He was arrested on 27 November in Shamli district of UP, a few hours after the jailbreak.
Nain said that the vigil has been increased in the district in the wake of the Nabha jailbreak. However, he said that there is no likelihood of escapees hiding in Karnal.
Police sources said that about a dozen people dressed in police uniforms came in four vehicles — a Toyota Fortuner, Hyundai I-20, Maruti Swift and Hyundai Verna — to the prison. The culprits claimed to be police officers and said they had brought two handcuffed prisoners to be handed over to the jail authorities. Allowed inside past the outer gate of the jail, they overpowered the guards inside, proceeding to batter one of them and asking to be given the keys to the interior door. The keys gave them entry into the interior of the jail, where the six prisoners were ready, waiting in a corridor. The culprits, who had automatic weapons, opened fire as cover for the escape, letting loose more than 50 rounds. They bundled the prisoners into the four vehicles, with blankets as shrouds and drove away. It was over in half an hour, from 8.30 am to 9.00 am. Nobody was injured.
Suresh Arora, Director General of Police, Punjab, did not rule out connivance of jail staff and said that their role was being investigated.
Conspirators arrested
Hours after a movie-style jailbreak, one of the conspirators, Parvinder Singh of Jalandhar, who is said to have provided logistics for the escape, was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police in Shamli district of that state.
Then the next day, police arrested dreaded Sikh militant, 49-year-old Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) chief Harminder Singh alias Mintoo, from the Delhi railway station.
Officers suspended
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said that the government suspended Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) M.K. Tiwari, a 1987 batch IPS officer, and dismissed Nabha jail superintendent Paramjit Singh Sandhu and deputy superintendent Karanjit Singh Sandhu from service. State home secretary Jagpal Singh Sandhu has been told to inquire into the incident. Besides, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed under the intelligence department.
Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh has charged the Badal government with connivance in the Nabha jailbreak, saying that Khalistani militants and other dreaded gangsters had been deliberately freed from prison for use by the Akalis during the Assembly elections.
