Farmers Movement Archive

‘Jailbreak attempted’ in central prison

Ludhiana: Some inmates of Ludhiana Central Jail allegedly attempted a jailbreak in the wee hours on Wednesday. They managed to break two rods of trellis in the central ward, but the security personnel spotted them and sounded an alert. Although the jail superintendent denied any such incident taking place, jail minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said he has ordered an inquiry into the matter.According to prison sources, around 1am, a group of inmates from Barrack No. 2 break two rods of the bathroom using some tools. But, the CRPF personnel taking a round saw them and alerted the jail authorities. Soon, the jail officials reached the spot and identified the inmates involved in the act. The security officials also recovered some rods and iron strips. Later, the broken rods of trellis were repaired.However, when contacted, jail superintendent Rajiv Arora said, “No such incident has taken place in the jail. This is just a rumour.”Jail minister Randhawa, however, said, “I have asked inspector general- prisons Roop Kumar Arora to conduct an inquiry into the matter.”On May 12, an inmate with the help of two others had scaled the inside wall of BKU Cell. But, he got his knee injured and was nabbed by a security personnel. A word had spread about the escape bid, but the jail officials had even then denied the incident.BOX- Quality of trellis poor: Jail ministerSpeaking to TOI, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said new trellis in the jails are of poor quality, which inmates can cut without much difficulty. “Such incidents have been reported from Amritsar and Bathinda jails, too. PWD has made these jails and I want an audit of it. I have also written to CM Capt Amrinder Singh regarding this. Security audit of these jails is pending because of Covid-19 outbreak.”BOX – Recent jailbreaksMarch 28, 2020: Four jail inmates, Ravi Kumar of Samrala, Suraj Kumar of Sultanpur, Aman Kumar of Fatehgarh Sahib and Arshdeep Singh of Sangrur, had escaped by jumping off the walls using blankets as rope. Locks of their cell were also found open. Later, the police arrested them from different areasJune 27, 2019: Taking the cover of violence inside jail, when the police had to open fire at inmates, several inmates had managed to jump off the walls of jail. Except for one inmate Amandeep Singh of Gobindgarh area, all other inmates were nabbed from the spot itself. Amandeep was arrested later by the policeBOX- Security beefed upFollowing the violence in jail on November 26, 2019, 76 CRPF personnel were deployed at Ludhiana Central Jail to strengthen security

The Times of India

2020-05-28

Ludhiana