Alert in Roorkee after Punjab Police uniforms found

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, December 2

The Haridwar police carried out an intense checking drive at hotels, dharmshalas, guesthouses, lodges and entry points in the district today. They checked identity proofs of suspected persons at Har-ki-Pauri, railway station, bus station, petrol pumps and areas where criminals involved in the Nabha jailbreak could be hiding.

The local intelligence unit has information that two persons in Punjab Police uniform were spotted in BT Ganj Colony and nearby areas in Roorkee yesterday. An Irrigation Department employee had noticed a bag containing Punjab Police uniforms in the Asafnagar stretch of the Ganga canal, near Mangalore, in the district three days ago.

This has raised suspicion that some of the criminals involved in the Nabha jailbreak incident may have entered Uttarakhand masquerading as Punjab Police personnel and later changed clothes and threw the black bag containing the uniforms in the Ganga canal. The uniforms were that of sub-inspector, head constable and constable. A cap, headgear, four belts, two nameplates of Hardeep Singh and Balwant Singh were also found in the bag.

A 20-member Punjab Police team that had come here to investigate the matter returned late last night.

Circle Officer, Roorkee, Swapnil Kishore said the Punjab Police team led by SP Ramandeep Singh obtained information from the Uttarakhand Police about the bag and also scrutinised the CCTV footage of sensitive areas in Roorkee and Mangalore.

Swapnil said they were in contact with the Punjab Police and had already sounded an alert in the district. Regular checking of vehicles and suspected persons was being done.

A police official said criminals involved in the Nabha jailbreak may have entered Uttarakhand from the Kaithal-Kairana side. They may have dumped the Punjab Police uniforms in the bag and threw it in the Ganga Canal. However, the bag got stuck at Asafnagar where the Irrigation Department employee spotted it.

Meanwhile, post-Nabha jailbreak incident, Haridwar Prison Superintendent SK Sukija has demanded deployment of Provincial Armed Constabulary jawans in the prison as a precautionary measure. He has written a letter to Haridwar SSP Rajeev Swarup citing vulnerability of the Roshanabad prison that is adjacent to the Rajaji Tiger Reserve.