The Fact News Service
Gurdaspur, March 16
The Punjab government has sent Dy Superintendent of Gurdaspur central jail on leave following yesterday’s violence in the prison after two groups of inmates clashed with each other requiring police intervention.
Harbhajan Singh, Dy SP, the officer who has been sent on leave, has been replaced by three officers of the same rank. These are Navdeep Singh Beniwal, Darshan Singh and Mangal Singh.
In another development, the Gurdaspur Deputy Commissioner (DC) Himanshu Aggarwal has initiated a magisterial inquiry into the sequence of events leading to violence.
Dyputy Commissioner Dr Himanshu Aggarwal said Gurdaspur SDM Karamjeet Singh had been entrusted with the probe. He has been asked to submit his report within 72 hours.
Sources, however, said that the SDM may not be able to complete the proceedings in three days as a lot of election related work is to be done by the SDM and his office. An officer said that the time-period can be extended if the SDM so desires.
A senior officer maintained that roads were not sealed during yesterday’s violence. “We do not stop traffic or seal roads when anything untoward happens in the jail or when VIP’s visit the prison. On March 10, when Punjab and Haryana High court judge Justice Mahabir Singh Sindhu paid a visit, the roads were not sealed and there was no inconvenience to anybody,” he said.
Jail Superintendent Navinder Singh said that he had formed a committee to look into the damage done by the inmates. A new hospital building is being built inside the jail complex due to which a lot of construction material was lying in the area where the violence took place. The prisoners took advantage of the construction material to pelt stones, tiles and bricks at the cops.
“I have constituted a committee to assess the damage done to government property inside the prison. It is not a time bound inquiry but nevertheless we will complete it as soon as possible,” said Navinder Singh.
