3 inmates demand money from convict’s mom, booked

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 23

The police have booked three jail inmates for demanding money from the mother of a prisoner.

In a complaint lodged with the Cantt police, Bathinda Central Jail assistant superintendent Surinderpal Singh said an inmate Harpreet Singh, alias Billa, of Amritsar, who is undergoing seven-year sentence in an attempt to murder case and has eight other cases registered against him, is lodged in the Bathinda Central Jail.

On February 14, he was sent to the Kapurthala Central Jail following court orders. Later, on February 20, during the hearing of a case, his mother, who had come there to meet him, told him that Jatinder Singh, alias Pala, of Nathuana in Moga, Nirmal Singh of Pathrela, Bathinda, and Lachman Singh of Alike in Moga, all inmates of Bathinda jail, repeatedly called her up and told her that her son was beaten up by Bathinda jail superintendent and had been locked in a room in the jail. They asked her to deposit Rs 30,000 to the jail superintendent to save his life and after repeated demands, when she deposited Rs 15,000, the accused demanded Rs 25,000 more.

Harpreet Singh, on the other hand, told his mother that since February 14, he had been lodged in Kapurthala jail and nobody had thrashed him. Investigation officer ASI Rajpal Singh said Bathinda jail authorities had demanded action against the accused, acting on which, a case has been registered. Mobile phones from the accused will be seized and a probe will be initiated, he said.