E-Paper
Criminal who fled custody, cop on duty get 5-year jail
Bhatti is already in jail for five years in an attempt to murder case, decided on February 15, 2017, and the court has specified that his sentence in the present case will begin when the previous gets over. The court also imposed a fine of ₹20,000 each on the two convicts.
A local court on Monday awarded five years jail to Rajan Bhatti, a notorious criminal and son of a Punjab Police head constable, for escaping from the courts complex during his appearance for the trial in a rape case in 2015.
The court also sentenced head constable Harbans Lal of Punjab Police, who was accompanying Bhatti, to five years jail for negligence.
The court have already acquitted three other accused in the case while one — Poonam, alias Dolly — has been declared a proclaimed offender.
Bhatti is already in jail for five years in an attempt to murder case, decided on February 15, 2017, and the court has specified that his sentence in the present case will begin when the previous gets over. The court also imposed a fine of ₹20,000 each on the two convicts.
Bhatti, a native of Gurdaspur, has multiple cases, including those of rape and murder, registered against him in Punjab and Chandigarh. He had also fired upon a deputy superintendent of police when a team had gone to nab him. He has also escaped from the Chandigarh district courts a number of times.
The escape
On October 14, 2015, after presenting Bhatti in court, Lal had taken him to have tea at a stall near the advocates’ chambers. Bhatti allegedly pushed Lal, climbed the rear wall of the courts complex and fled in a car that was waiting for him there.
Lal was accused of negligence for not alerting the police control room and his seniors on time. According to sources, it was not the first time that an undertrial escaped from his custody.
Police had registered a case under Sections 222 (intentional omission to apprehend on the part of public servant bound to apprehend person under sentence or lawfully committed), 224 (resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension), 225 B (resistance or obstruction to lawful apprehension, or escape or rescue in cases not otherwise provided for), and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
