Three prisoners escaped from the high-security Amritsar Central Jail by scaling the boundary walls, prompting Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to order a review and revamp of prison security across the state.
Following the incident, seven officials-- two assistant jail superintendents, four wardens and a home guard sepoy--posted in the jail were placed under suspension with immediate effect, ADGP (Jails) P K Sinha said in Amritsar.
The action against the prison officials came after the chief minister directed Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa to immediately suspend, pending inquiry, all those responsible for the prison security. The three undertrials--one accused of rape and the other two (both brothers) of theft and dacoity--escaped on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday by making a hole in the wall of their barrack by removing about 10 bricks, officials said.
"They then appear to have scaled the inner wall--which is about 16-foot high-- by standing one atop the other. While the outer wall--approx 21 feet--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 the CCTV cover," DGP Dinkar Gupta said in an official statement in Chandigarh.
The DGP said there was no evidence of any outside help, according to preliminary investigations, which suggests that the trio, among 61 prisoners in Barrack No. 7, Ahata No. 2, had planned their escape on their own.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh ordered a magisterial inquiry, which will be led by the Divisional Commissioner, Jalandhar.
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ADGP (Jails) P K Sinha said, "The security of the jail was being reviewed at the micro level. Gross negligence in the security system was also found."
He said the Amritsar Central Jail has around 3,200 inmates against the capacity of 2,700.
Earlier, the chief minister had asked the ADGP (Jails) to review and further strengthen prison security not just in this jail but in prisons across the state, officials said.
A statewide hunt has been launched for the prisoners, they said.
The jail authorities came to know about the incident at 3.20 am, almost two hours after the prisoners broke their barrack and escaped by scaling the inner and outer walls of the jail, as per the CCTV footage from the prison, officials said.
The prison guards were alerted about the escape by other inmates, who included a brother of one of the escaped prisoners, according to initial information.
One of the escaped prisoners has been identified as Vishal, aged about 22, from Ara Colony, Majitha Road, Amritsar.
He is an accused in a rape case registered last year.
"He was lodged in the jail on April 5, 2019. The other two are brothers, identified as Gurpreet, aged 34, and Jarnail, aged 25, residents of Chandigarh Road, Khadoor Sahib, Taran Tarn," DGP Dinkar Gupta said.
He said the two brothers were accused of theft and dacoity and were brought to the prison in July last year.
Vishal's brother Gaurav, also in the same barrack, chose not to flee with them, said the DGP.
Reacting to the development, the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal has demanded an immediate dismissal of the Punjab jails minister besides a probe by a sitting judge of the High Court.
Asking the chief minister to fix accountability at the very top, former Punjab minister Daljit Singh Cheema said the "jails minister should be asked to resign immediately till the pendency of the probe" and the government should tell why the jail administration has "collapsed".
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