Punjab Police and other security agencies on Monday continued their hunt of five gangsters who had escaped after a sensational jailbreak at the maximum security Nabha Jail in Punjab a day earlier.
Police and security agencies were alerted in six states, including Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. Routes towards Nepal were also being checked.
Punjab Police conducted raids at various places, including the residence of those who fled. The prisoners who escaped and their attackers apparently went in separate directions soon after escaping from the Nabha prison.
In neighbouring Haryana, the Haryana and Punjab Police confirmed the recovery of a Hyundai Verna car from a village in Kaithal district. The abandoned car was
one of the getaway vehicles used by the escaped prisoners and their attackers.
“On search of the car, we recovered a police uniform and some mobile numbers. We are investigating this. The registration number plates of the car are fake,” a Haryana police official in Kaithal said.
Khalistan liberation Force chief Harminder Singh Mintoo, Kashmir Singh (both terrorists) and gangsters Gurpreet Sekhon, Vicky Gounder, Amandeep Dhotian and Neeta Deol, had escaped from the Nabha Jail after the attack. Mintoo was later arrested from New Delhi.
Uttar Pradesh Police on Sunday evening itself had nabbed gangster Parvinder Singh, who admitted to being one of the attackers in the jailbreak, from near Shamli town in western Uttar Pradesh.
“The Punjab Police has been informed about the arrest. He is being questioned for further leads on his accomplices. He is the main accused in the jailbreak,” Chaudhary said.
A security lockdown was ordered along Punjab’s border with Haryana and Rajasthan and with Pakistan. The Punjab government has announced a reward of Rs 25 lakh to anyone giving information leading to the arrest of the six prisoners.