3 inmates booked for stealing medicines from OOAT clinic

Tribune News Service
Bathinda, December 4

The police have booked three jail inmates for stealing medicines meant for drug addiction patients from the Out Patient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) clinic on the Central Jail premises.

According to the police, the inmates had stolen 2,000 tablets and of these, 1,718 tablets have been recovered from them. The inmates have been identified Jagshir Singh, Balwinder Singh and Ajay Kumar.

According to sources, the inmates entered the clinic and broke the lock of a closet and stole the tablets on November 28 evening. At the time of the incident, staff members had left the clinic.

On the following day, they found that the lock of the closet was broken and medicines were missing. Later on examining CCTV footage, it was found that three inmates had stolen the medicines.

According to information, the inmates were serving a jail term for drug peddling. But, it is surprising that despite elaborate security arrangements inside the jail, they managed to steal the tablets.

Jail Superintendent Balwinder Singh said, “As soon as we came to know about the incident, we wrote to the police to initiate required proceedings in the matter.”

On being asked about the lapse in security arrangements, he said, “There are approximately 1,800 inmates in the Central jail and keeping a tab on their each and every activity is difficult. We have adequate staff members in the jail, but sometimes such incidents take place. We have managed to recover most of the stolen tablets.”

Narendar Kumar, SHO, Cantonment police station, said, “A case under Sections 454 and 380 of the IPC, Section 52 of the Jail Act and under relevant sections of the NDPS Act has been registered against the inmates. We will get a production warrant issued against them from a local court. Thereafter, further investigation will be carried out.”