Cops raid jail, prisoners erupt in anger

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, May 22

The police averted a riot on the premises of Gurdaspur Central Jail after some inmates threatened to put prison jammers and a watchtower on fire on Tuesday.

The potentially volatile situation was brought under control after SSP Harcharan Singh Bhullar, accompanied by senior officers, reached the prison around 6 am following an SOS sent by Jail Superintendent Karamjit Singh Sandhu.

Sandhu asked for reinforcements after an early morning search by him and his staff angered the prisoners.

The search was ordered by Jail Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa after he received a tip-off claiming that mobile phones were being used on the premises.

This was the third search ordered by the minister in the past 15 days.

The inmates were incensed over repeated raids being conducted by the police. A few days ago, 15 handsets, hidden under bathroom tiles, were recovered leading to immediate suspension of Jail Superintendent Randhir Singh Uppal and his deputy Arvinder Singh Bhatti.

On Tuesday, when Sandhu and his staff went to conduct raids on barrack No 8, the inmates started raising slogans. They also started inciting prisoners lodged in other barracks to come out and start a riot. When the situation turned ugly, Sandhu called the SSP.

Scores of prisoners gathered on the top floor of the barrack and threatened to burn the jammers and watchtowers. In the melee, somebody ignited a minor fire that led to confusion.

A reserve battalion was stationed outside the premises to avoid any untoward incident.

Three handsets were recovered from barrack No 8 bringing the total number of mobiles recovered in the past fortnight to 18.

SSP Bhullar and DSP (city) Gurbans Singh Bains remained on the premises for over two hours.

ADGP (Prisons) Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota has asked DIG (Jails) Surinderpal Singh Saini to inspect the jail and submit a report to him.

The jail was in the eye of the storm last year too when some gangsters threatened to explode a cooking gas cylinder in an attempt to divert the attention of the authorities from a group of inmates who were busy creating an opening in the 13-inch-thick concrete wall. The then ADGP (Jails), Rohit Chowdhury, and IG (Border) Naunihal Singh had to call in reinforcements from adjoining police districts to bring the situation under control.

Randhawa said he had initiated a probe into Tuesday’s unrest.