Neeta, Sunil brought to court amid tight security

Manish Sirhindi

Tribune News Service

Patiala, Janaury 19

After securing custody of Kulpreet Singh Dewal, alias Neeta Deol, one of the masterminds of the Nabha jailbreak, and his associate Sunil Kalra, the Punjab police today produced them before a local court at Nabha, which sent them to police custody till January 24.

Neeta and Sunil were brought here amidst tight security and produced before the local court. Their custody was handed over to the Punjab police by a local court of Indore, from where they were arrested two days ago from a flat in Khajrana area on January 17.

The accused had rented a flat about 10 days ago through a classified advertisement on a website. As claimed by the Indore police, they were arrested during a search operation conducted to collect information of tenants with dubious activities. This operation was a part of an enhanced security in view of the coming Republic Day, the Indore police stated. They had even seized eight mobiles, a laptop and Rs 2,000 cash from them.

While Neeta, who is in his 30s and hails from Moga, has six cases, including that of murder, dacoity, loot and attempted murder, registered against him in various police stations in Punjab, Sunil Kalra, a resident of Ludhiana, was convicted for Shivani Gupta murder in his hometown. He had made away with Rs 25 lakh after befriending her and killing her. Kalra was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. He had jumped parole and was found staying with Kulpreet Singh in Indore.

Meanwhile, the Punjab police had claimed that they had provided the Indore police with “specific details”, which had let to the arrest of the criminals.