Gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, 7 aides moved to Bathinda jail

Aparna Banerji

Jalandhar, January 21

Nearly a fortnight after he was booked by the Kapurthala police for breaking an LED TV in the jail, gangster Jagdeep Singh alias Jaggu Bhagwanpuria was transferred along with seven associates to the Bathinda jail on Saturday. The gangster’s shift to the Kapurthala jail was part of an exchange – five members of the Bambiha gang were brought from the Bathinda jail to Kapurthala jail the same day.

The Bhagwanpuria and Bambiha gang are fierce rivals. So the exchange is also believed to ensure that they don’t stay in the same jail. Bhagwanpuria, one of the main accused in the Sidhu Moosewala murder case, has been lodged in the Kapurthala jail for the past three months.

Bhagwanpuria had also filed a petition with the Punjab and Haryana High Court, expressing apprehensions of threat to his life from gangster Lawrence Bishnoi and his supporters, not to be kept him at the Bathinda jail.

On January 6, an FIR had been registered against gangster Bhagwanpuria at the Kotwali police station in Kapurthala for breaking an LED TV at Kapurthala Central Jail. The incident happened after his spat with a fellow inmate.

Highly placed police sources told The Tribune, “The conflicts among gangsters have been a headache for the jail authorities. After the LED incident, the Bathinda jail was deemed to be a better place to keep him.”

Superintendent of the Kapurthala jail Kulwant Singh Sidhu, said, “It is a routine affair and it has nothing to do with the LED incident. The shift was part of the administrative decisions taken by the jail authorities from time to time.”