Ludhiana blast accused was in touch with drug kingpin, calls traced

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, December 26

The role of Ludhiana Central Jail authorities has come under scanner in connection with the recent court complex blast here. It is learnt that the conspiracy for the incident was hatched by the suspects using mobile phones while lodged in this jail.

Made from jail

Undertrials lodged in the Ludhiana Central Jail reportedly made phone calls to accused Gagandeep Singh, who died in the incident

Drug kingpin Ranjit Singh Cheeta and terror case undertrial Sukhwinder Singh Soni, both lodged in the jail, reportedly had phone calls with blast suspect Gagandeep Singh, a dismissed Punjab Police constable who died in the incident.

Sources claimed the police had seized mobile phones used by Cheeta and Soni to communicate with Gagandeep and to facilitate his interaction with some pro-Khalistani activists.

Despite the fact that around 150 phones are seized from Ludhiana Central Jail inmates every year, the authorities have neither been able to ascertain the channel through which inmates obtain phones nor could they establish connivance of jail officials.

Jail Superintendent Balkar Singh said inmates might obtain phones with the help of outsiders who lobbed these over the jail boundary wall or there might be connivance of some corrupt jail officials. “Soni and Cheeta are being quizzed and the police will soon come to know how they obtained the phone,” he said.

In May this year, a hookah party video of Manvinder Singh, alias Nikka Jatana, who faces 16 criminal cases, had gone viral.

In June 2020, Nikka Jatana reportedly planned a murderous attack on his rival gangsters using a phone while lodged in the jail. Later, he accepted the responsibility for the attack via a social media post.

On April 28, 2019, the STF nabbed a woman smuggler with 440 gm heroin. The drug racket was being run by her son from the jail using a mobile phone.