Police used tear gas to control the situation. (Express photo by Gurmeet Singh)Inspector General Of Police, Jails, Roop Kumar was a busy person Friday. A clash had broken out in Ludhiana Central Jail Thursday when inmates attacked the jail staff and in resultant police firing an undertrial was killed. The incident coming days after the death of prime accused in Bargari sacrilege case, who was allegedly killed by two inmates in Nabha jail on June 22, kept Kumar on toes.
Just about a month ago, on May 29, the Punjab and Haryana High court, while deciding a petition, had found that Kumar had “furnished an affidavit against the facts” and directed the state government to take necessary action against him.
The HC passed the directions while deciding a criminal writ petition filed in 2015 by Kumar’s junior in the department, Karamjit Singh Bhullar, posted as assistant superintendent at Ferozepur Central Jail.
Bhullar had approached court claiming that while being posted at the Ferozepur jail in 2009, he had recovered drugs from a prisoner but some of the officers from his department didn’t take action according to law against the inmate and let him go.
Citing the order passed by the high court, Bhullar wrote a letter to Ferozepur SSP on June 22. “From 2005 to 2015, jail superintendents posted in Ferozepur made prisoners drug addicts by certain means and recovered huge amount of bribe money from them. Government machinery power was misused by jail officials in big way to make prisoners drug addicts inside jail. I request you to register a case against Roop Kumar and other officials on the basis of Punjab and Haryana High court order and probe further in this case,” the letter written by Bhullar reads.
Earlier, in 2017, Bhullar had filed a writ petition against his seniors, then ADGP jail Raj Pal Meena and DIG jails Lakhminder Singh Jakhar, for alleged embezzlement in the purchase of ration for the prisoners. Bhullar had alleged a scandal in crores. That petition is still pending in court. Meena, meanwhile, retired from service while Jakhar is still in service.
Bhullar himself was booked for allegedly facilitating a smuggler in selling drugs inside jail during his posting at Faridkot Central Jail in 2015.
Apart from that, in 2017, a Jaipur court had written to Punjab government to take strict action against those jail department officials, who were appointed in Amritsar and Patiala jails from 2009 to 2011 and gave ‘free hand’ to two Lakshr-e-Toiba militants to use mobile phones and make calls to Pakistan from prison premises.
The jail department had conducted a probe and held 14 officials accountable for grave negligence. However, final action is still pending against these officials.
“Disciplinary action has been taken against us. The charge-sheet has been filed. Proceedings are pending,” said an official, who is accused of negligence and is still serving. At least seven of the 14 officials, under scanner for giving free hand to militants, have retired from service with all the perks.
Recently, in April, Deputy Superintendent (Grade-2) Rajan Kapoor, then Assistant Superintendents Vikas Sharma and Sukhjinder Singh and Head Warder Pragan Singh were dismissed from service.
The Jails Department in its preliminary report had said that these officials were hand-in-glove with jailed gangsters and extorted Rs 15 lakh from a prisoner. Another inmate alleged he was sexually tortured and arm-twisted to pay Rs 7 lakh to these jail staffers.
In March, Jails Minister Sukhwinder Singh Randhawa had also conducted a raid and suspended Patiala jail superintendent Jaspal Singh after he was found favouring suspended IG Paramraj Umranangal, who was locked there in connection with the Kotakpura firing case.
