Lawyer on police radar for helping jailbreak accused

Shahira Naim

Tribune News Service

Lucknow, September 28

The Pilibhit police have issued a lookout notice for a foreign-based lawyer, who was reportedly facilitating a fake passport for Nabha jailbreak accused Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi Ghanshyampura.

Pilibhit SP Kalanidhi Naithani has confirmed the development.

He said it appeared that the accused had been hiding in Sikh-dominated Puranpur area of the district and trying to get a fake passport under the name of Paramjit.

“We learnt about this from media reports in Punjab. A case was filed about 10 days ago and two police personnel were suspended for being instrumental in giving a police clearance. They were Assistant Sub-inspector Ranvir Singh and Sub-inspector Kunwarpal Singh,” said Naithani.

According to the police, Ghanshyampura has been hiding in Pilibhit since the jailbreak in November 2016. He had applied for a passport with forged documents on August 8.

On intelligence reports from the Punjab Police about Ghanshyampura’s reported arrest and subsequent deal for his release, three persons were picked up from Uttar Pradesh — Sandeep Tewari alias Pintu, Amandeep and Harjinder Singh Kahlon (the last two are Pilibhit residents).

During interrogation, the involvement of an IG-level officer in facilitating the deal for Rs 45 lakh had emerged.

Later, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had ordered an investigation. ADGP (Law and Order) Anand Kumar, who is probing the matter, had visited Amritsar to interrogate several accused. He is yet to submit his report to the state government.