Year after escape, Amritsar jailbreak main accused is back behind bars

Acting on a tip-off, police arrested Vishal Kumar from new grain market in Ambala on Thursday; two of his accomplices were arrested a week after the escape on February 1, 2020

More than a year after he escaped from the Amritsar Central Prison, police have arrested Vishal Kumar, the main accused.

On February 3, 2020, the police arrested two wardens and a home guard jawan deployed at the prison in connection with the February 1 jailbreak. Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh had ordered a magisterial inquiry into the case. (Representative image)

Vishal had escaped from the high-security jail along with two undertrials on February 1 last year.

While two escapees, Jarnail Singh of Hansanwala village in Tarn Taran and his brother Gurpreet Singh, were arrested a week after the jailbreak, Vishal, who belongs to Majitha road in Amritsar, had been absconding. He is accused of raping a minor.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, deputy commissioner of police (DCP-detective) Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar, who supervised the operation of arresting the accused, said, “A team of inspector Sukhwinder Singh, in-charge excise staff, acted on a tip-off about the presence of Vishal at new grain market in Ambala city. Without delay, the team reached there and arrested him on Thursday.”

“Vishal is being questioned in detail. We want to know who helped him escape, who funded him and gave him shelter,” he said.

Vishal was an undertrial in the case registered at Chheharta police station in 2019.

The other two escapees are notorious criminals who are booked in five cases each of robbery and snatching. Those who sheltered them were also arrested.

The three had escaped by removing bricks of their barrack and then scaling the inner and outer walls of the jail.

Both the brothers had planned to escape earlier too and made four other inmates part of the plan. However, they did not implement it as one of the inmates was shifted to Faridkot jail. The new plan was made in September 2019, in which Vishal was also involved.

On February 3, the police arrested two wardens and a home guard jawan deployed at the prison in connection with the February 1 jailbreak.

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh had ordered a magisterial inquiry into the case.