AMRITSAR: Are the jail authorities bound by the law to inform the police beforehand about the release of a person acquitted or released on bail by a court? Can the police re-arrest such a person at the jail gate itself even without a fresh case having been registered against him?
The answer under the law to both questions is no Never-the-less the release of several persons by the Amritsar Central Jail authorities in the recent past without intimating the police in advance has created tension between the two.
The trouble between the police and the jail administration has lately taken a serious turn with the former complaining to the Punjab Government against “uncooperative” attitude of jail officials taking of “preventive action” against released militants whose possibility of rejoining the militants’ ranks was high.
Not only this the police in separate communications to the Advisors (Security) the Home Secretary and the IG (Prisons) has accused the local jail staff of “helping” the released militants in getting their identity changed to evade re-arrest outside the jail.
According to police officials there are cases wherein jail personnel had not only kept the police in the dark about the release of militants but also given them shelter at their residential quarters on the jail premises so as to facilitate their “escape”.
It has now become a practice with the police to illegally re-arrest militants once they are set free from the jail on court orders.
Police officials seek to justify the “extra-judicial” arrests on the plea that there is no other course left for the police to keep the militants in check because of the high rate of acquittal and bail in TADA cases. They cite numerous examples to prove their point “once a militant always a militant. I had accidentally hidden some important files on my flash drive, and I thought I had lost them recover files deleted from recycle bin windows 8.1 forever. ”
They say police records indicate that most of the militants have jumped bail and rejoined militant outfits. The illegal rearrests have the facet approval of the higher authorities.
Although the jail authorities the officials maintain are not legally pound to inform the police in advance on the release of any person at the same time they are not supposed to give shelter to those whom the police intends arrest again.
‘The jail authorities used to intimate the local police on militants’ release in advance till a few months ago. The recent change in the attitude of the jail staff is not without reason.
According to reliable information confirmed by police officials the jail authorities have lately been working under tremendous pressure from militant quarters. There have been veiled threats from militant outfits to the jail staff warning them against intimating the police about the release of their activists. Sometime ago militants had gunned down a deputy superintendent of the high-security jail here.
According to police officials the jail authorities in an apparent bid to save their skin have not been sticking to fixed hours for the release of the jail inmates.
However the jail authorities deny the police charge of having been acting under militant pressure and arbitrarily changing the release time schedule.
A senior Amritsar police official narrated an interesting episode about the release of a top militant Major Singh Jamarai of the Khalistan Commando Force. The day he was to be set free from the jail following bail granted by a court the police positioned itself outside the jail entrance.
The militant it is alleged was taken to the house of a jail official on the premises and made to wear trousers a shirt a tie and goggles. Jamarai was then escorted to the main gate of the jail from where he quietly left in a vehicle without arousing any suspicion.
In another instance a top Babbar Khalsa militant Baldev Singh Dorangla who had been in the jail for the past three years and was granted bail recently was released without the knowledge of the police. Dorangla who belonged to a border village in the Dera Daba Nanak sector had transported huge consignments of weapons He has rejoined the militants.
Not long ago five of those discharged in the Operation Black Thunder case were set free from the jail much against the wishes of the police. The release took place even before a police party could reach the jail to again apprehend them. In this case the police lodged a complaint with the higher authorities. Subsequently a DSP (Jails) was transferred.
In yet another case the police could not re-arrest a hardcore militant Lakhwinder Singh who had been accused of involvement in several bomb blasts because the jail authorities allegedly informed the police barely 15 minutes before his release.
Police officials allege that in certain cases where they had sought police remand for an accused lodged in the jail the accused was allowed to get himself admitted to the jail hospital
Although the police are openly resorting to the illegal arrest of released militants neither the Punjab nor Haryana High court nor has the Sessions Judge given directions to the police to stop this.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 13, 1991
