Inquiry ordered into VIP treatment to Jagir Kaur
Amid reports that VIP facilities, including an LCD TV, were being provided to Bibi Jagir Kaur lodged in Theh Kanjla Jail in Kapurthala after her conviction for abducting her daughter and her forcible abortion, a top Punjab prisons official today ordered an inquiry into it.
Amid reports that VIP facilities, including an LCD TV, were being provided to Bibi Jagir Kaur lodged in Theh Kanjla Jail in Kapurthala after her conviction for abducting her daughter and her forcible abortion, a top Punjab prisons official today ordered an inquiry into it.
Punjab DGP (prisons) Shashi Kant also insisted that rules will be followed in the case. "I have ordered an inquiry and deputed an IG-rank officer to conduct the probe. He will visit the jail and go into all the reports (talk of VIP treatment to Kaur). I don't tolerate any nonsensical stuff and we don't want any adverse publicity. Rules will have to be followed," Kant told PTI.
Kant further said that he had also shot off a letter to Kapurthala jail superintendent SP Khanna, asking him to strictly follow the rules.
"My one-line instruction to him was that rules have to be observed. I am also sending a team for inspection to Kapurthala jail. I have asked the jail superintendent that rules have to be observed at all costs," Kant said.
Asked to comment on reports that a 32-inch LCD TV and DTH dish antenna was installed in the jail on Monday, Kant said he had got it checked from Khanna and the jail superintendent told him that the article had not made its way inside the complex where prisoners are lodged.
"The jail superintendent said the TV could have been purchased by someone living in the residential area inside the jail complex. The outer gate of the jail is common and besides the superintendent, deputy superintendent, there are doctors and other staff who live in the residential quarters in the complex. It could have been for any of them," he said.
When his attention was drawn to media reports that suggested that there was beeline of visitors who wanted to meet 57-year-old Kaur, a SAD MLA who resigned as Punjab cabinet minister last week following her conviction, Kant said that according to jail rules, friends and relatives can meet her.
"There is no specified number in jail manuals," he said when asked how many people can meet her in a day.