CHANDIGARH: Assistant superintendent Bhim Singh and head warden Jagmeet of Punjab's Nabha jail were arrested on charges of abutment and criminal conspiracy in the scandalous jailbreak case. Bhim had allegedly met the accused a day before he managed to escape, and his mobile phone was used to plot the escape of prisoners, said the police.
The police had booked 29 people, including nine jail officials, under relevant sections of the IPC. Amongst those who managed to bid prison goodbye, were Khalistan Liberation Front chief Harminder Singh Mintoo, and four other prisoners. They escaped after four armed men in police uniform stormed the high-security prison in Patiala on November 27. While Mintoo, 48, was caught from Nizamuddin railway station's parking area in New Delhi, alleged mastermind of the plan, Parminder Singh was shifted to a high-security prison in Muzaffarnagar. He was arrested from Kairana, Uttar Pradesh, the same day when the getaway vehicle was stopped at a police picket.
Rakesh Singh, Superintendent of district jail said no inmate was allowed meet to Parminder, and that security of the jail was upped. An alert has been sounded in 65 district jails of Uttar Prades in the wake of the Nabha jailbreak.
Mintoo was a member of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) which he left in year 2009 and revived Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF). He used to operate from Thailand and Malaysia before he was arrested by police from IGI airport in 2014 after being deported from Thailand for possessing fake passport. In Thailand, Mintoo had set up a base and was using it to mobilise funds for the banned Sikh groups. Before being arrested, he had also travelled to Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, sources said.
