Amritsar, December 10
The Amritsar central jail is in the news yet again, for all the wrong reasons. After a Pakistani inmate Niyamat Ali, who reportedly managed to escape from the jail on August 30, an Afghani prisoner, who had been serving sentence under a drugs and narcotics offence, managed to dodge four jail personnel last night and escape from their custody.

The Afghani national Shahjahan was admitted to the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital for want of some medical aid and four jail personnel - Lovepreet, Lakhbir Singh, Sudarshan Singh and Sukhdev Singh were put on duty to keep a vigil on him.

Nevertheless, this development came to light only when one of the jail officials came to the hospital for checking. Interestingly, all the four too, reportedly, vanished from the spot in the morning, allegedly, after coming to know about this lapse. Meanwhile, they have been put under suspension for being negligent in performing their duty.

Confirming the incident, in charge Majitha road police station Harish Behl said the news of his escape reached them in the evening only.

“It has been learnt that when a jail official went to the hospital just for a routine check, it was found that the accused, as well as the four jail personnel were not there. A case against them has been registered but search for them is on. It would later be established, when they are nabbed, what actually could have happened”, he said. Superintendent of Jails GS Sandhu and Deputy Superintendent of Jails Balbir Singh, could not be contacted despite efforts.

After repeated incidents of this nature in the recent past, DC KS Pannu has recently written a strong worded letter to the state government to revamp the jail administration. The DC has also recommended changing the entire battery of jail staff.

Tarn Taran, December 10
DSP Patti Ram Parkash would probe the incident of the escape of two under trials, who managed to flee away from the sub-jail Patti yesterday.

This was said by SSP Preetpal Singh Virk, while talking to this correspondent here today. He said the DSP has been instructed to submit his report as early as possible.

The SSP further said a case under sections 223, 224 and 120 B of the IPC had been registered against under trial Manjinder Singh and Gurlal Singh of Takhuchak village of Patti sub division, besides Seetal Singh and Daljinder Singh, the jail warders.

Both the jail warders have been put under suspension with immediate effect, said the SSP.

Manjider and Gurlal were in the jail regarding a murder case registered against them only three months back.

A long rope has been recovered from the spot and in the preliminary report it was said the under trials managed to escape from the jail by jumping the four walls of the jail with the help of this rope.

RK Sharma, DSP, jail, when contacted, took it as a matter of routine by saying if inmates could manage to escape from Malerkotla, Pathankot and even from the high security Central Jail, Amritsar then escaping from this sub-jail can’t be regarded as a serious matter.

He said the allegedly responsible warders have been suspended with immediate effect.

SSP Preetpal Singh Virk said the theory of escaping with the help of a long rope was beyond acceptability and the police was working on all theories, keeping its options open.

The record of the sub-jail revealed that in the year 1969, two Muslim under trials had managed to escape from this jail and after this incident the government had decided to prohibit keeping Muslim inmates in any of the sub-jails of the state.

Till the filling of this news item, more than 40 hours have passed since the under trials police have failed to know the where- abouts of the escaped under trials when the police claimed to raid certain hid outs of the escapees.

Jalandhar, December 10
Alerted by a vigilant citizen, the city police today intensified vigil to check any untoward incident.

A team of bomb disposal squads, along with a sniffer dog, searches the Partap Bagh area in Jalandhar. (Right) Rahul informs the police about the conversation he heard regarding the bomb. Tribune photos: Malkiat Singh

A teenager Rahul, of Partap Bagh locality, informed the police that he overheard a conversation by an unidentified turbaned youth, who was talking on mobile phone, about placing a bomb at an undisclosed area. Rahul revealed, what he had heard, to other boys who subsequently informed the PCR.

Receiving the information, Deputy Police Commissioner Arun Pal Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Dr SK Kalia along with their police parties, rushed to the area and the Pratap Bagh areas was virtually cordoned off.

Talking to The Tribune, Kalia said a team of sniffer dogs, bomb disposal squads and cops who were expert in the field, was pressed into service. A search operation was conducted in the suspected area. The police has sounded an alert and all the entry and exit points to the city have been sealed, Kalia added.

The police has also tightened security in and around the city and a close watch is being made of every suspect, he added.

Phagwara, December 10
Rail and road traffic remained disrupted for several hours due to poor visibility owing to dense fog which enveloped many areas today. Commuters on roads had a difficult time driving on the national highways.

Several trains, including Delhi-bound Shatabdi Express, Dadar Express, Barauni Express, Sachkhand Express, Pashchim Express, Amritsar-bound Howrah Mail, Howrah Express, Frontier Mail, Tata Express, Jammu-bound Jammu Mail, Jhelum Express and Himgiri Express, were running late.

Meanwhile, the Railways has set up ‘Fog Signal Posts’ near all railway stations of Firozepur Division to provide normal running of the trains during foggy weather. Railway employees gave green signals to coming trains by bursting crackers on the tracks near fog signal posts.

Pathankot, December 10
A woman working in the irrigation department at Malikpur, and a resident of Gho village, was allegedly raped here today. Acting on a complaint, the Shahpur Kandi police registered a case of rape under section 376 of the IPC against Raj Kumar, a resident of Dadwan village.

According to the complainant, in the evening when she was going to her residence on her moped, Raj chased her on a motorcycle.

As she reached near Dadwan village, he suddenly appeared before her and forced her to stop on the lonely road.

Jalandhar, December 10
Keeping in view the low growth rate in Jalandhar-II, comprising major parts of Jalandhar and Kapurthala, compared to the national average of income tax collected, the I-T authorities have planned to conduct surveys and investigations for better tax realisation.

The authorities are carefully monitoring the income tax paid by assessees so far and the instalment of tax which was supposed to be paid by mid December.

Rakesh Suri, Commissioner of Income Tax of Jalandhar-II, said he was personally monitoring tax realisation. The growth rate of income tax collected in Jalandhar-II, comprising areas including Nakodar, Goraya, Phillaur in Jalandhar and Kapurthala district, including Phagwara, so far is much less than the all India average as compared to last year.

“Since the economy has already come out of recession, there is no reason why the growth rate in this region should be less than 20-25 per cent, when the all India average is around 20 per cent. He asserted that the department is already monitoring the advance tax paid by the assesses and on the basis of intelligence gathered and information already available with it, action in suitable cases in the shape of surveys and inquiries shall be initiated shortly,” said Suri.

He has urged various business and trade organisations to convince their members to pay advance tax honestly reflecting the genuine growth in their income to avoid coercive action by the department.