NABHA – At least four armed men helped gangster Palwinder Singh Pinda escape from police custody at the Civil Hospital here after firing at policemen. The assailants, who also fired in the air, sang Punjabi songs and danced before fleeing in a white Swift car.
As per witnesses, the accused entered the ward where Pinda was admitted for treatment. “They opened fire and told the policemen to hand over Pinda to them. However, constable Deep Chand tried to overpower one of them, who fired at his thigh. Later, they threw chili powder at the other constables and fled with the gangster,” the witnesses added.
The police were yet to register a case. “We have recorded the statements of constables Nirmal Singh and Satbir Singh and jail official Gamdoot Singh, who were attacked with chili powder,” said Superintendent of Police (SP, detective) Paramjit Singh Guraya.
A senior police officer told The Tribune that the escort police party was armed with a carbine, but still they failed to open fire at the gangster’s aides.
Pinda is an accused in the 2013 murder of Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Gurdev Singh in Jalandhar. He was arrested by the Patiala police later that year along with his accomplice, Satnam Satti, following an encounter.
Panda has four other cases against him — two in Jalandhar and one each in Kapurthala and Patiala. He was recently shifted from the Patiala Central Jail to the Maximum Security Jail, Nabha
NO FEAR OF THE LAW!
January 2015: Gangster Sukhbir Singh Kahlwan, alias Sukha Kahlon, was gunned down by at least 15 unidentified assailants — who filmed the act and danced around the body in front of the policemen — in Phagwara. The murder took place when six cops were taking him back to the Nabha jail in a jeep after a court hearing in Jalandhar. The assailants got the cops and another prisoner to get off before pumping around 20 bullets into Kahlwan’s body.
March 2014: Gangster Rajiv Raja escaped from the custody of Bathinda cops when he was being taken for a court hearing. In 2009, he had fled from Barnala bus stand after his accomplices injured the policemen accompanying him.
2013: Jaspreet Jassa, an undertrial in the murder case of former Akali MLA Malkiat Singh Keetu, escaped when he was being taken for a court hearing. Jassa, Keetu’s nephew, escaped from an eatery at Jagraon after his handcuffs were removed.
