No lapse, open to inquiry: Randhawa

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, July 1

Jail Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has written a demi-official letter, attaching with it a copy of the relevant sections of the Punjab jails manual, to SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal in which it has been mentioned that jail staff can use firearms during attacks on officials by prisoners as it happened in Ludhiana Central Jail on June 27.

Sukhbir had recently claimed that the minister’s phone calls should be checked “as he was the one who had ordered officials to open fire on the inmates in the Ludhiana prison”.

To this, Randhawa said he was “open to any kind of checking at any time on any day”.

“Sukhbir says that if the SAD government returns to power, he will order a probe into phone calls made by me moments before officials decided to resort to firing. I welcome him to ask for a CBI probe. His is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. He has very conveniently forgotten what happened during the Nabha jailbreak episode. Half a dozen hardcore criminals, including Vicky Gounder, escaped. Why has Sukhbir forgotten that the SAD government of the day took more than six months to arrest the accused? It goes on to prove beyond doubt that he is suffering from selective amnesia,” said the minister.

Randhawa said the jail manual was clear on how to control incidents occurring in prisons. “I am nobody to give directions to officials who themselves are empowered to take decisions,” added the minister.