Kapurthala prisoner who escaped custody arrested

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 30

A Kapurthala jail inmate, who escaped from police custody in Amritsar a week ago, was arrested within 24 hours from his residence. A complaint was, however, lodged with the police on Sunday, following which a case was registered against the prisoner identified as Bhupinder Singh, alias Sanju, a resident of Basti Gujjran in Jalandhar.

According to the police, Bhupinder was lodged in jail for possessing drugs under the NDPS Act. On March 23, his health condition deteriorated and he was referred to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital. He was suffering from epilepsy. When he was admitted to the hospital, a cop was busy in completing formalities, while another cop was with him. He pretended that he was semiconscious. The cop who was with him took a break and was having tea. Taking the advantage of the situation, Bhupinder fled from the hospital premises. The jail guards immediately sounded alert and informed their higher-ups about the incident. As the curfew was imposed in the entire state following Corona pandemic, he went to his house in Jalandhar, where jail guards were keeping a watch.

As he came to his house, jail wardens Balkar Singh, Raj Kumar and Angrej Singh nabbed him and handed him over to the police. As the prisoner was nabbed within 24 hours, the Jail Department took departmental action against the guards and lodged an FIR against the jail inmate. A case under Section 224 of the IPC was registered against him.

99 released on parole

As many as 99 jail inmates lodged in the Amritsar Central Jail were released on parole and interim bail in the view of Covid pandemic. The step was taken to decongest the jail complex where around 3,400 prisoners and undertrials were lodged against the capacity of 2,200 inmates. Duty magistrate PPS Goraya from the district administration and jail officials headed by superintendent jail Arshdeep Singh Gill were present on the occasion.

They said a total of 289 jail inmates were released in the past three days. As per the criteria laid for their release, no inmate with imprisonment of more than seven years was released. Besides, the prisoners lodged under charges of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, sexual harassments and rape, acid attacks, the NDPS Act with more than 3 years of imprisonment and inmates lodged under unlawful activities will not be released under the drive. Gill said old age prisoners who were imprisoned for less than 10 years and aged over 65 years were also released on 40-day parole.