M A I N   N E W S

PM, Sonia assure all help to Beant family
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 23
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister Mr L.K. Advani and Congress President Sonia Gandhi promised all help to the family of former Chief Minister Beant Singh after sharing their concern at the sensational Burail jail escape.

According to family sources, both Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani talked to Punjab Transport Minister, Tej Parkash Singh over the telephone late last night and promised all help, including proper security cover, to all members of the family of the slain Chief Minister.

They also assured the Beant Singh family that every effort would be made to apprehend the suspected assassins and take exemplary action against those who were found guilty or involved in their escape.

Mrs Sonia Gandhi, sources said, maintained that Mr Beant Singh was a great martyr whose sacrifice often reminded her of the great sacrifices made by Mrs Indira Gandhi and Mr Rajiv Gandhi. Mrs Gandhi also reportedly tried to talk to Mrs Jaswant Kaur, widow of Mr Beant Singh, over the telephone.

Immediately after the news of escape of Jagtar Singh Hawara, Jagtar Singh Tara and Paramjit Singh Bheora reached the Beant Singh family, it got in touch with the Governor of Punjab-cum-Administrator of Chandigarh, Justice O.P. Verma, who was in the union capital at that time.

Mr Tej Parkash Singh, Mr Malkiat Singh Dakha, Mr Amrik Singh Dhillon — all MLAs — and Mr Parminder Singh, General Secretary, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, met Justice Verma at Kapurthala House the Governor expressed serious concern at the sensational escape and promised exemplary action against the officials responsible for this security failure.

Family members say the SSP, Khanna, visited Mrs Jaswant Kaur at Kotli village, near Ludhiana, yesterday to review the security arrangements.

A similar contact was made with the family at Chandigarh. “But no additional security has come so far to any one of us,” remarked a family member.

“We are feeling concerned as we had been pursuing the trial in Burail Jail. We are naturally the main target of the escaped suspects,” he said.

Escape may delay trial in Beant case
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 23
Proceedings in Punjab’s former Chief Minister Beant Singh’s assassination case were likely to be delayed with the daring escape of three accused from Model Jail in Burail village here.

As per sources in the Central Bureau of Investigating (CBI), the proceedings in the case were likely to be prolonged by as much as six months. Though CBI’s Special Prosecutor R.K. Handa refused to comment on the issue, sources claimed that the prosecution evidence would have been wrapped up within next few months.

Meanwhile, counsel for the accused in the trial — Mr Amar Singh Chahal —today claimed that the three were being implicated in a false case. He demanded the setting up of a panel for looking into the incident. He added that the panel should consists of a jurist, a member of a human rights organisation, besides an officer of the Chandigarh Administration.

Claiming that the lawyers were not in favour of magisterial inquiry into the matter, Mr Chahal asserted that the “probe should be open so that the public could know the truth”. The lawyer added that he, along with 20 other advocates, had already submitted a memorandum to the Administrator and were waiting for his response. “Strong legal action would be taken in another two or three days,” he said,

The trial was currently being conducted in a special courtroom set up on the jail premises. The accused, as per a notification issued by the Chandigarh Administration, could not be taken out of the jail premises. The record showed that over 235 witnesses, out of a total of 425, had already been examined and cross examined by the CBI, and the accused.

Among them were prime witnesses Surinder Sharma and Balwinder Singh. As of now, the prosecuting agency was examining Investigating Officers and experts. “We had already decided to drop formal witnesses in an attempt to expedite the trial,” a CBI official asserted.

Meanwhile, the sources added that the court would formally be informed about the escape of the three accused on the next date of hearing. After that warrants would be issued. Subsequently, the process of declaring them proclaimed offenders would be initiated. Trial, they asserted, would be delayed as proceedings could not be held in absentia.

Fireman enters escape tunnel
Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 23
Fire Department officials set an example of bravery while on duty by entering the tunnel through which Mr Beant Singh's assassination undertrials escaped from Burail jail yesterday.

"The police and the jail officials did not have any idea about what lay in the dark corridors of the escape trail. They were wary, quite naturally. No one was daring to enter the narrow passage fearing that the undertrials might have left some explosives on the escape route before running away", sources in the Fire Department said.

"It was expected that the suspected assassins of the former Chief Minister might have left some clues on the escape route. The feeling was mixed with the fear that they might have left behind certain explosives. Probably, a team better equipped to handle explosives should have been sent before anybody entered the tunnel", sources said.

Mr S.K. Gosain, Station Fire Officer, who led the operation said " the Fire Department operation was not any search operation for explosives. We had gone on a rescue mission to check out in case someone was struck up in the passage or in case any casualty had occurred. The search for details of the crime will be worked out separately by the police".

Mr Gosain said Mr Kala Singh, a leading Fireman, was the only one who went though the entire passage of the tunnel and emerged on the other side of the 94 feet long tunnel. He was tied with a rope. The passage was very narrow. There was no point in everybody going to the other side. He said he would be unable to give any details about the operation.

Sources said that the team searching the tunnel discovered an empty coke bottle, a bulb, cover of a dustbin, scarves and certain pills of medicine, sources said. Mr Jagtar Singh and Mr Gurmeet Singh were two other officials of the Fire department who were involved in the exercise.

The Fire Department had the facilities of providing ladder to go down the 10-feet deep tunnel. The mission might not be a great professional achievement but the act deserves a mention for bravery shown by the officials, it was pointed out.

Burail Jail was always a target
Prabhjot Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 23
For the high security Central Jail, Burail, digging a tunnel for escape was nothing new as similar attempts had been made earlier also, including by those who made a sensational escape in their second attempt.

Lack of coordination between the jail staff and the police, failure to conduct routine check of barracks, and camouflaging of the escapees love for gardening for digging of tunnel, feel some of the officials who have been associated with the administration of prisons in the region, are probable reasons for this sensational escape.

The first reported attempt was soon after Jagtar Singh Hawara, Jagtar Singh Tara, Paramjit Singh Bheora and other suspects in the case were shifted to the jail. Another attempt was made last year also.

The first attempt to escape by digging a tunnel was thwarted by the regular anti-sabotage checks which had been introduced after the trial in the Beant Singh assassination case started inside the jail. The observatory towers, too, were constructed after the Administration and the jail authorities started getting regular information about the possibility of the high profile suspects fleeing the jail. Other reports had suggested that even the jail could be blown up.

The laxity that followed, after the initial jail break attempts were foiled, probably helped the escapees this time. Regular inspection of all barracks, sources reveal, had been either discontinued or were conducted only as a formality.

Jagtar Singh Hawara, Jagtar Singh Tara and Paramjit Singh Bheora, sources reveal, were not only found of playing volleyball — as they had a volleyball court in front of their barrack — but also as keen kitchen gardeners.

Kitchen garden may be for camouflaging the surreptious digging of the tunnel from below the concrete bed of Jagtar Singh Hawara.

Lack of coordination between the Chandigarh police and the jail staff has been, sources point out, exploited by the escapees.

Though observation towers were built, little has been done to strengthen internal intelligence as well as proper screening of visitors to the jail in general and those visiting the “escapees” in particular. Some years back, sources reveal, a man pretending to be a cousin of Jagtar Singh Hawara used to frequent the jail. During one of his visits, he delivered a small packet containing some white powder. The suspecting jail staff intercepted that packet which was fed to a dog. Police was blamed for not being vigilant in scrutinizing visitors.

On subsequent verification, it was found that the identity and the address given by the visitor was fictitious. On his next visit, this man was arrested and charged with supplying RDX-laced sweets. The police story was, however, not without its own contradictions. Some action was proposed against the police supervisory staff posted outside the jail.

Unlike other high security prisons, none of the prisons in the region has either any internal intelligence or any dog squad to check clandestine activities, including smuggling of contrabands into jail premises.