The Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab suspended jail superintendent Iqbal Singh Brar and six other officials in connection with a violent clash reported from the Goindwal Sahib prison on February 26, in which two accused in the Sudhu Moosewala murder case were killed. Brar and four others have also been placed under arrest, according to an official statement issued by the Punjab government.
The two deceased inmates were were identified as Mandeep Singh alias Toofan of Batala and Mohna alias Manmohan Singh of Budhlada. A video surfaced later, in which Lawrence Bishnoi gang members Sachin Bhiwani and his associates could be seen talking about the clash, the official statement said.
According to the statement, the police have registered an FIR for unlawful assembly for an offence committed in prosecution of the common object, criminal intimidation and under section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, against the gangsters who shot the video and made it viral, and also named the seven jail officials in the FIR for their "negligence and connivance". Following this incident, the Tarn Taran police had already filed an FIR for murder.
Brar, additional jail superintendents Vijay Kumar and Jaspal Singh Khaira, assistant jail superintendent Harish Kumar, two ASIs Joginder Singh and Harchand Singh, and head constable Sawinder Singh have all been suspended. Those arrested so far include Vijay, Harish, Joginder, and Harchand, in addition to jail superintendent Brar, a report in Times Of India said.
According to an Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson, this is the first time that the state government has taken such stern action against police officers for incompetence.
"While successive governments have patronised gangsters and the mafia, the AAP government has cracked down on them...all officers must work with dogged honesty and sincerity and not leave any work pending," added the spokesperson.
The viral video was shot by Sachin Bhiwani and Ankit Sirsa, and it shows them celebrating the murder of Jaggu Bhagwanpuria gang members Mandeep Singh alias Toofan and Manmohan Singh alias Mohna inside the jail with other inmates, as per reports.
Another prisoner, Keshav, was injured in the incident and was taken to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital in Amritsar, as per the TOI report.
Arrested jail official Harish was in charge of the zone inside the jail where the two gang members clashed and the gangsters shot the video on mobile the two arrested ASIs Joginder and Harchand could be seen in the viral video but they did not take any action, Punjab police headquarters IG Sukhchain Singh Gill informed Punjab police headquarter on Sunday evening, the report said.
Despite the fact that the jail has three high-security zones, Gill claimed that the jail personnel was careless about how the cell phone got inside and how it was utilised. He went on to say that when the gangsters in zones 1 and 2 were released into the open area on February 26, the gangsters in zone 1 attacked the detainees in zone 2. According to the IG, following this occurrence, all of the jailed criminals were segregated in various jails, and regular surprise checks were conducted in jails, even by district police, to keep a careful eye on jail inmates.