3 prisoners escaped from Amritsar jail-CM orders magisterial probe; suspended jail officials
Kanwar Inder / royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has ordered a magisterial inquiry by Commissioner Jalandhar into the escape of three prisoners from Central Jail Amritsar, and has also directed the Jails Minister to immediately suspend, pending inquiry, all those responsible for prison security.
A state-wide hunt has been launched for the escaped prisoners, and the Chief Minister has also ordered ADGP Jails to revamp prison security in the wake of the incident, which came to light around 3.20 a.m., less than two hours after the undertrial prisoners broke their barrack and escaped by scaling the inner and outer walls of the jail, as per the CCTV footage of the prison.
Taking serious note of the security lapse, the Chief Minister said prison security would be reviewed and further strengthened, not just in this jail but in the others across the state too.
The prison guards were alerted about the escape by the other inmates, who included the brother of one of the escaped prisoners, according to initial reports. There was no evidence of outside help, according to preliminary investigations, which suggest that the trio, among 61 prisoners in Barrack no. 7, Ahata no. 2, had planned the escape on their own.
Giving details DGP Dinkar Gupta said the men apparently made a hole in the wall of their barrack by removing about 10 bricks. They then appear to have scaled the inner wall (about 16 feet high) by standing one atop the other, while the outer wall (21 feet approx.) was crossed by them using a hook made of a steel bar and the cover of a quilt to make a ladder. They finally escaped the jail complex from a point near Tower no. 10, which was not under CCTV cover.
One of the escaped prisoners has ben identified as: Vishal s/o Satish Kumar, aged about 22 years r/o Ara Colony, Majitha Road, Amritsar, who was accused in FIR 51 U/S 376 , POCSO Act Dated 02-04-2019, PS Chehartaa. He was admitted in Jail on 05-04-2019. The other two are brothers, identified as Gurpreet s/o Sukhdev Singh, aged 34, and Jarnail s/o Sukhdev Singh, aged 25, r/o Chandigarh Road, Khadoor Sahib, Tarantarn, accused in FIR no. 165/18 U/S 379-B, 395 IPC, FIR No 41/19 U/S 399,402 IPC PS B Division Amritsar. They were admitted to the prison on 08-07-2019.
Vishal’s brother Gaurav, also in the same barrack, chose not to flee with them, said the DGP.
