Now, Home Guards jawan caught with tobacco, tablets at jail

The Central Jail, Ludhiana, on Wednesday arrested a Home Guards jawan deployed on the jail premises for allegedly supplying drugs in the prisons. He allegedly used to supply drugs to prisoners. Officials also recovered narcotic pills, tobacco and capsules from the suspect.

The suspect has been on duty in the jail for a long time. The Police Division 7 registered a case against him under the NDPS Act and the Prisons Act.

Assistant Superintendent Jail Surinderpal Singh said during checking inside the jail, they recovered 14 intoxicating tablets, three capsules, three open packets of Cool Lip (tobacoo) and one sealed sachet of tobacoo from Sukhpreet Singh, an employee of the Punjab Home Guards.

Jail officials suspected that the suspect used to provide intoxicants to the inmates after getting huge amount of money from them. When senior prison officials got the information, they laid a trap and arrested Sukhpreet during checking. He is a resident of a village located in Khanna. The previous record of the suspect is also being investigated. Even if he supplied tobacoo or drugs to inmates in the past, a probe would also be done to verify facts and further action will be taken against him as per law.

ASI Sukhwinder Singh said after registering a case, further investigation was launched by the police.

Past incidents

Not an isolated case, earlier also officials deployed in the jail for security were arrested with drugs by the department. On July 10, an Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) constable deputed at the Ludhiana Central Jail was arrested while trying to smuggle banned items into the prison. The suspect, Jagdeep Singh, was caught with 30 gm of loose tobacco and 14 sachets of packed tobacco concealed inside his uniform. A resident of Sujapur village in Sudhar, he had been serving at the Central Jail for the past 14 years.

On July 1, a home guard jawan was caught for supplying drugs and mobile phones to inmates in exchange for money. The suspect even received payments through UPI from inmates’ relatives.

Even in June this year, the warden at the jail was caught red-handed while attempting to smuggle tobacco into the prisons, hidden inside his socks. The suspect, Gurpreet Singh, a resident of Singhewala in Fazilka district, was caught during a late-night security check.

Tobacco seized from man who came to meet his son

The police registered a case on the complaint of the Assistant Superintendent, Central Jail, Ludhiana, after 15 gm of tobacco was seized from a man who had come to meet his son in the jail. In the complaint sent to the police by jail officials, it was stated that a person, Jonas, a resident of Model Colony, Meharban, came to meet his son and during his frisking, tobacco was recovered from him. A case was registered against him and further investigation was launched.