Day after clash, members of Bishnoi, Jaggu gangs shifted to separate jails

A day after the clash between members of Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Lawrence Bishnoi gangs in Goindwal Sahib central jail, the prison authorities on Monday separated them from each-other.

A day after the clash between members of Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Lawrence Bishnoi gangs in Goindwal Sahib central jail, the prison authorities on Monday separated them from each-other.

As many as 18 inmates of the Goindwal jail—all accused in Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s killing—have been shifted to five different jails of the state. (HT File Photi)

As many as 18 inmates of the Goindwal jail—all accused in Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s killing—have been shifted to five different jails of the state.

The clash had left two gangsters—Mandeep Singh alias Tufan and Manmohan Singh alias Mohna—dead. Similarly, another gangster Keshav had received critical injuries. Mandeep, Mohna and Keshav belong to Jaggu Bhagwanpuria gang. Two more inmates—Manpreet Singh alias Bhau and Arshad Khan—belonging to Lawerence Bishnoi gang had also received minor injuries.

According to the jail sources, gangsters Manpreet Singh alias Money, Nirmal Singh alias Nimma, Charanjit Singh alias Chetan and Gagandeep Singh have been sent to Kapurthala jail. Similarly, gangsters Baldev Singh alias Nikka, Prabhdeep Singh alias Bubby, Ankit, Bittu Singh and Bittu have been transferred to Ferozepur jail.

Gangsters Sandeep Kekra, Sachin Bhiwani, Kashish alias Kuldeep Singh, Deepak Mundi, Chirag Kala and Manpreet Singh Bhau have been shifted to Roop Nagar jail. Gangsters Sarabjot Singh alias Sunny and Sunil Kumar Lohia have been sent to Hoshiarpur jail while gangster Rajinder Kekra was shifted to Amritsar jail.

Senior superintendent of police (SSP), Tarn Taran, Gurmeet Singh Chahuan said, “Both the gang members have been separated.”

The separation of the members of the gangs, which have turned rivals after working together for several years, comes after the jail authorities felt danger of more clashes among them.

Both the gangs have been posing a big challenge to Punjab Police mostly in the cases of targeted killings. Jaggu Bhagwanpuria and Lawrence Bishnoi are being interrogated by Punjab and Delhi Police in several similar cases, including of the killing of Sidhu Moose Wala. Hours after the killings in the jail, a Facebook post from an account named after foreign based gangster Goldy Brar had surfaced in which the responsibility of the jail attack was taken by Lawrence Bishnoi group.

The post had claimed that Bishnoi gang member Manpreet alias Bhau was beaten in the Goindwal jail two days ago at Jaggu’s instance. Similarly, one more post on the name of Jaggu Bhagwanpuria has surfaced and claimed to take ‘revenge of blood with blood’.

Meanwhile, Tarn Taran police have booked seven persons—Manpreet Bhau, Sachin Bhiwani, Ankit, Kashish, Rajinder, Arshad Khan and Malkit Singh—all members of Bishnoi gang for the jail attack. The accused have been booked under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempted murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and various Sections of the Prisons Act at Goindwal Sahib police station. SSP Gurmeet Singh Chahuan said, “On the statement of the jail officials, we have booked seven persons for attacking their fellow inmates. These accused will be brought on production warrant for their questioning to ascertain the exact reason of the clash.”

As per the first information report (FIR), around six inmates of bloc number 2 went towards seven accused, who have been nominated in the case, lodged in bloc number two. The bloc 2 inmates were carrying iron strips, but the inmates of bloc 1 had snatched the strips and attacked the inmates of bloc 2.

Police had said around 25 members of both the gangs were kept in a high security zone which was further divided in sub-cells. Sources said a scuffle among the members of the both the gangs had taken place in the jail around two to three days ago. However, no action of adequate security was taken.

Deceased Tufan’s father Harbhajan Singh alleged that his son was attacked in the jail a few days ago, but no action of adequate security was taken.

SSP Chauhan said the exact reason of the clash has yet to be ascertained. “Today, we were busy in conducting post-mortems of the deceased. The accused in the case will be brought on production warrant for their questioning,” he said. On Monday, both Tufan and Mohna’s autopsy was conducted at Tarn Taran civil hospital in presence of a judicial magistrate.