Thirty prisoners were today booked for their alleged role in violence, which broke out last evening in district jail complex here as inmates clashed with prison staff and set afire part of a building, prompting police to open fire in air.
"Police have booked 30 prisoners of the jail under various Sections of the IPC," B S Gill, Superintendent of the District Jail, told reporters today.
A judicial inquiry was also ordered today into the incident.
Gill said that some of the prisoners had formed a racket in alleged connivance with some staff members of the jail for supplying various types of intoxicants to the jail inmates.
The officer said he was looking into this after he recently assumed the charge as Jail Superintendent here.
Gill said that as soon as he came to know about the racket, he immediately ordered shifting of some prisoners.
The inmates were apparently unhappy over shifting of prisoners and undertrials to Kapurthala jail from Hoshiarpur district jail.
As prisoner Sandeep Singh and undertrials Ravi Shankar, Narinder Singh and Avtar Singh were being shifted, the other inmates started pelting bricks on prison staff.
They also vandalised the office of the DSP and and set ablaze a video conferencing room in the jail complex. To quell the violent prisoners, jail staff fired in the air.
While they were being shifted, they allegedly provoked other inmates following which the situation suddenly turned violent.
The four inmates who were the kingpin were shifted to Kapurthala jail last evening.
