The sister and brother-in-law of two of the three undertrials, who escaped from the high-security Amritsar central prison on February 1 night, were arrested by police on Wednesday for sheltering the duo in their house after the jailbreak.
The police said the couple had also helped the two — Gurpreet Singh (34) and his brother Jarnail Singh (25) of Khadoor Sahib in Tarn Taran district — in escaping from the prison. The third escapee is Vishal Kumar of Amritsar who is facing trial for allegedly for raping a minor girl. The two brothers are accused of robbery and snatching.
The arrested couple — Sukhwinder Singh, alias Kala, and his wife Paramjit Kaur of Vainpuin village in Tarn Taran — has disclosed that the three plotted the jailbreak nearly two-and-a-half months ago. The trio had escaped by removing bricks of their barrack and then scaling the inner and outer walls of the complex.
Amritsar police commissioner Sukhchain Singh said during investigation it came to the fore that Kala and his wife met Gurpreet and Jarnail in the jail recently.
“Soon after the jailbreak, our team conducted a raid at Kala’s house in Veinpuin, but they had already changed their address. This made us suspicious. Then we discovered that the couple is now been living in Chohla Sahib village. Our teams reached there and it came to light that the escapee brothers took shelter in their house. The two brothers had fled before police reached the spot,” the police commissioner said.
{{/usCountry}}“Soon after the jailbreak, our team conducted a raid at Kala’s house in Veinpuin, but they had already changed their address. This made us suspicious. Then we discovered that the couple is now been living in Chohla Sahib village. Our teams reached there and it came to light that the escapee brothers took shelter in their house. The two brothers had fled before police reached the spot,” the police commissioner said.
{{/usCountry}}Another senior police official privy to the probe said, “The couple was living at Chohla Sahib on rent. We came to know from the neighbours that two men stayed there on Sunday night. When we questioned Kala and his wife, they confessed to have provided shelter to the accused. Paramjit Kaur told us that she and her husband went to meet her brothers in the jail on November 21. Gurpreet and Jarnail informed her about their planned jailbreak that day.”
It was at the behest of the undertrial brothers that the couple changed their address to Chohla Sahib so that the police could not trace them, he added.
“Other family members of the two have also changed their addresses and raids ae being conducted to trace them. After the jailbreak, the two brothers went to Chohla Sahib while the third escapee remained in Amritsar,” he said.
On Monday, the police had arrested two wardens and a home guards jawan deployed in of the prison in connection with the jailbreak.