M A I N   N E W S

Accused kidnap cop at gunpoint
Ravi S. Singh
Tribune News Service

Gurgaon, April 7
Two hardcore inter-state criminals, brought here to appear in a local court from a Ludhiana jail by three policemen of the Punjab Police, made a daring escape today after they snatched a Sten gun from a policeman and took one of them hostage.

The two criminals, Sanjay Papdi, a resident of Ballabgarh in Faridabad district, and Arjun, alias Jagbir, a resident of Mangol Puri in Delhi, were produced before the court of Additional Sessions Judge B.L. Singal in connection with a murder case.

FIR had been registered against them with the Sohna police station in Gurgaon district in 2002 for their alleged commission of murder at the time of dacoity in a hot-mix industrial plant.

According to Gurgaon district police chief Hanif Khureshi, the police has registered a case in the matter, including a case of kidnapping against the two criminals.

two are alleged to be wanted in around 10 cases of heinous crimes, including dacoity and murder, in Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Mr Khureshi said the three policemen had brought the two criminals from the Ludhiana jail by a bus. Some accomplices of the two criminals were present outside the court in a Tata Sumo. The two escaped after snatching the gun from one of the policemen. A head constable, Ram Asray, was missing, he added. Out of the three policemen, two were head constables — Ram Asray and Sikandar Singh — while the third one — Om Prakash — was a constable.

Mr Khureshi said the district police had swung into action and was investigating the matter. He said checkpoints had been set up in the district.

While the police authorities were keeping a stiff upper lip on the details of the investigation, sources said the local police had got in touch with its counterparts in the nearby districts of Haryana as well as the police in Delhi.

Also, the police of the bordering districts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan were said to have been alerted.

Unofficial sources said the policemen had brought the two criminals in the same vehicle from Delhi in which they had fled.

The Tata Sumo had been hired after the policemen along with the criminals alighted from the bus. Sources claimed that the driver of the vehicle had colluded with the criminals.

Although the police said it was investigating the case, it was learnt that two of the policemen had got in the vehicle on each side of the window seats after appearance in the court.

It was then that the two criminals pushed out one of the policemen after snatching his Sten gun and held the other hostage.