Gurdaspur Central Jail Inmates Rewarded For Saving Prison Employees' Lives

Jail authorities rewarded the inmates of Gurdaspur central jail who "exhibited good behavior" and saved some prison employees when some prisoners clashed last week.

The jail authorities today claimed the prisoners have returned to their daily routine.

"The situation in Gurdaspur jail is normal now," Punjab's Additional Director General of Police (Prison) Rohit Chaudhary said.

"We have announced several measures for the inmates who exhibited good behaviour during the incident of rioting by about 150 inmates," he said.

The inmates of four barracks were rewarded for sheltering four prison employees, who were stuck during the disturbance, and saving them from harm, a jail official said.

Violence erupted in Gurdaspur jail on March 24 afternoon when two groups of undertrials clashed after one group thrashed two staff members, forcing the police to open fire in the air, to rein them in.

Around 150 jail inmates, including many hardened criminals, tried to escape from the prison by breaking a portion of its outer wall on Friday night. But jail authorities managed to thwart the jailbreak bid in time.

They broke locks of all the jail barracks, besides destroying CCTVs, mobile jammers and setting ablaze the quilts and furniture.

Additional force including SWAT was brought from Majitha, Tarn Taran and Amritsar to control the violence.

The situation was brought under control in the wee hours of Saturday, police said, adding that teargas shells were also lobbed.

As many as 21 inmates were shifted to other jails while 30 inmates were booked for attempt to murder, rioting, damaging public property, police said.

A mobile phone was also recovered from a gangster Jagtar Singh Jagga, police said. Undertrials were upset over the increased security measures at the jail and alleged that the jail authorities used abusive language against them, a police officer said.

A bakery unit has also been approved for inmates while computer, yoga, music, English and meditation classes will be started next week in the barracks where the disturbance took place, official said.More than 44 leave cases were approved which were pending in DC office, the official said.

Inmates were also encouraged to enroll for IGNOU courses in special enrollment drive and 31 inmates have expressed interest for it, the official said. As a special measure, inmates were allowed to meet their relatives for the whole week, the official said. A helpline number for the quick disposal of parole cases will be started in the DC office, the official said.

There are around 900 inmates in Gurdaspur jail.The jail authorities also held meeting with inmates of all the barracks and a peace committee was constituted with inmates of each barrack. Inmate pledged to prevent other inmates from indulging in creating disturbance in the jail, official said.

Taking a serious view of the jail violence, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has convened a high-level meeting of police and Home department officials next week to review the security in the state's prisons.