Punjab Deputy Chief Minister S. Sukhbir Singh Badal today paid a surprise visit to the high security Nabha jail in the aftermath of the incident of 6 hardcore prisoners being freed from the jail and took stock of the situation. He was accompanied by the DGP Suresh Arora and other senior officers.The Deputy Chief Minister directed the senior officers present on the spot to ascertain who is responsible for such a gross negligence and security lapse. He further instructed that a comprehensive assessment regarding security of all the jails in the state must be carried out and security further strengthened. He also ordered to seal the borders with the neighbouring states and nab all the prisoners at the earliest. The Deputy CM stressed that the persons responsible for this incident would not be spared and they would soon be behind bars. He also gave instructions to ascertain as to whether any member of the internal staff of the jail is involved in the incident or not.On the occasion, DGP Suresh Arora while interacting with the media-persons disclosed that at 9 AM 5 people wearing police uniforms arrived at the outer gate of the Nabha jail in a car and told the sentry that they have come to drop a prisoner and he opened the outer gate. After this the criminals carrying small weapons overpowered the sentry manning main gate and then proceeded towards internal gate, made its sentry open the gate overpowering him too.
The DGP further said then the culprits started firing in the air and were successful in freeing 6 hardcore criminals. He also informed that vigilance has been enhanced in the whole state to nab the culprits. The DGP further divulged that the 6 criminals that fled from the Nabha jail included Harwinder Singh Mintoo, Kashmir Singh, Gurpreet Singh Sekhon, Harjinder Singh Vicky Gonder, Amandeep Singh Dhotian and Kulpreet Singh Neetu of which Harwinder Singh Mintoo and Kashmir Singh are militants while the rest are hardcore gangsters. He also disclosed that the Punjab Government has announced a reward of Rs. 25 lakh for anyone informing about the whereabouts of the culprits and also that an SIT has been formed by the Deputy Chief Minister, S. Sukhbir Singh Badal to probe this incident which includes ADGP (Internal Vigilance) Prabodh Kumar as head while IG/Patiala Zone Paramraj Singh, IG Ishwar Singh, IG/Counter Intelligence Neelabh Kishore, DIG Patiala Range Amar Singh Chahal and SSP Patiala Gurmeet Chauhan are included as members.Among others present on the occasion were IG Patiala Zone Paramraj Singh, SSP Patiala Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, Deputy Commissioner Patiala Ramvir Singh, DIG (Jails) L.K. Jakhar and other senior officers of the police and jail departments.