CHANDIGARH: Three prisoners including two brothers arrested for theft and another person on charges of raping a minor escaped from high-security Amritsar Central Jail by scaling it’s both inner and outer walls during the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday.
The prisoners who escaped have been identified as 34-year old Gurpreet Singh and 25-year old Jarnail Singh, who are brothers hailing from Kadhoor Sahib in Tarantarn.
They were arrested by the police on charges of theft and dacoity and came to jail on July 8 last year and third inmate is 22-year old Vishal Kumar from Amritsar, who was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on April 2, 2019, and came to jail April 5 last year.
Meanwhile, Vishal’s brother Gaurav also in the same barrack, chose not to flee with them.
As per the CCTV footage of the prison. The inmates fled from the jail at around 1:30 am broking their barrack and then escaping by scaling the inner and outer walls of the jail. But the jail staff came to know about it around 3.20 am only.
There was no evidence of outside help, according to preliminary inquiry the trio were among 61 prisoners in Barrack no. 7, Ahata no. 2, had planned the escape on their own.
Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta said the accused apparently made a hole in the wall of their barrack by removing about ten bricks.
They then scaled the inner wall which is about 16 feet high by standing one atop the other and then they scaled the outer wall which was 21 feet by 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 number 10, which was not under CCTV cover.
Taking serious note of the security lapse, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has ordered a magisterial inquiry by Commissioner Jalandhar into the incident.
He had also directed the Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa to immediately suspend all the officials pending inquiry.
He said prison security would be reviewed and further strengthened, not just in this jail but in the others
across the state too.
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.
In November last year, Amritsar Central Jail was the first prison in the state where Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was deployed for security.