This story is from December 4, 2016

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Days after three Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) ultras and a murder suspect, Devi Singh, escaped from the high security Model Burail Jail in January, 2004, intelligence sleuths were taken aback by a book found from the residential quarters of deputy jail superintendent Ved Mittal Gill, located inside the jail premises. The book, Great Escapes by Australian writer Paul Brickhill, was an insider account of the mass escape of inmates from the German prisoner of war camp, Stalag Luft III in 1944. Gill and six others had been charged with providing logistics and other support to runaway convicts Jagtar Singh Hawara, Jagtar Singh Tara, Paramjeet Singh Bheora and Devi Singh.
Dons online & offline
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CHANDIGARH: Days after three Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) ultras and a murder suspect, Devi Singh, escaped from the high security Model Burail Jail in January, 2004, intelligence sleuths were taken aback by a book found from the residential quarters of deputy jail superintendent Ved Mittal Gill, located inside the jail premises. The book, Great Escapes by Australian writer Paul Brickhill, was an insider account of the mass escape of inmates from the German prisoner of war camp, Stalag Luft III in 1944.
Gill and six others had been charged with providing logistics and other support to runaway convicts Jagtar Singh Hawara, Jagtar Singh Tara, Paramjeet Singh Bheora and Devi Singh.
While the connection of the book with the escape conspiracy could not be established, Mittal and six others were terminated from jail service on disciplinary grounds.
The escape from Model Burail Jail was dramatic, with the prisoners crawling out through a 94-feet long tunnel. It became fodder for headlines, documentaries and dramatic reviews.
Cut to the Nabha jailbreak, in which six prison inmates, including chief of Khalistan Liberation Force, Harminder Singh Mintoo, stormed out of the high-security jail complex. The nature of the escape put the spotlight squarely on insiders, without whose collusion such an escapade was impossible.
An FIR was lodged against seven jail officials, including jail superintendent and three head wardens. Two of the wardens are suspected of supplying cellphones to the prisoners to coordinate with their associates outside the jail.
A senior Punjab intelligence officer told TOI, “It is not possible for criminals lodged in jails to hatch such a wellplanned conspiracy without the involvement of insiders. At the time of the Model Burail jailbreak in 2004, the material recovered from Barrack number-7, which was known as Gurudwara barrack and housed three BKI ultras along with a murder suspect, raised eyebrows. The material included two sickles, jute bags, television and refrigerator. All this could not have reached inside the barrack without the connivance of jail officials.“

If criminals want to operate from inside jails, they need to establish good rapport with the jail staff. “It is not easy for criminals to develop friendly relations with jail staff members. They have to work hard for it. They change their behaviour, plead to staff members and at times, grease their palms though relatives out of the jail premises“, said a senior lawyer defending an undertrial at the district courts complex in Sector 43.
The lawyer, who did not wish to be named, cited another audacious jailbreak back in 1986.“The notorious serial killer, Charles Shobraj used to bribe staff at Tihar Jail systematically to facilitate his daring escape. In 1986, he threw a lavish party, mixed sleeping pills in the food and escaped, leaving the unconscious jail staff in his wake,“ he said.
Apart from sensational jailbreaks involving notorious criminals, a number of incidents of prison inmates and petty offenders escaping from police custody have been reported across Punjab and Chandigarh in the last one and a half years. In all these episodes, several police personnel were suspended or dismissed.
Ex-DGP (prisons), Punjab, Sashi Kant, who is also a jail reform expert, said, “Jailbreaks have occurred repeatedly despite so many commissions, committees and policies being formed to suggest jail reforms to improve security inside jails. No doubt, the reforms were implemented in some places but the condition in the jails of Punjab is bad.“
Sashi Kant, who was credited with exposing drug supply inside Punjab jails, said criminals enjoy the protection of politicians and of police and jail officials.
Gun-toting anti-hero emerges as role model
Rohit.Mullick@timesgroup.com
Dressed in a hooded, grey sweat shirt, Lawrence Bishnoi, a crimi nal facing multiple cases, clicks a selfie with two prison mates and posts it on his Facebook account.
Within hours, the post gets thou sands of likes and hundreds of com ments from his mostly young fans, all expressing adoration and wish ing him good luck in prison.
Some of the comments eulogiz ing Lawrence read: “Koi rees ni teri yaara“ (nobody can match you, friend), “Sirra Vir“ (awesome, brother), “Kaim“ (cool), “I can join your party“, “Hathyar naal tauur bnde mere yaar de“ (weapons make my brother look so cool)... Five days before he stormed his way out of the high-security Nabha Central Jail in a sensational jailbreak on November 27, Vicky Gondar, a notorious gangster, congratulates a student leader on Facebook on becoming the president of a college student union.
The post gets around 3,000 likes and over 100 comments, again mostly from thousands of followers.
Welcome to the biggest fa n club of Punjab's gangsters on Facebook, where criminals are youth icons and where killing someone is an act of valour.
Thousands of youngsters, mostly college students, are following their favourite gangsters on Facebook. Their acts of crime are greeted with unquestioning adulation, be it killing someone, threatening rival gang mem bers, sending selfies from inside prisons or posing with guns and pistols.
Most of these gangsters are involved in student po litical parties all over Pun jab and supply muscle power in the elections. A few stu dent outfits like the Shera Khuban Student Union (SKSU) and Gandhi Group Student Union (GGSU) have been for med in memory of slain gang sters Shera Khuban and Rupinder Gandhi.
Shera Khuban was a dreaded gang ster, who headed one of the biggest gangs in Punjab. He was killed in a police en counter in 2012. Rupin der Gandhi faced multi ple criminal cases and was killed in 2003.
The SKSU and GGSU have been gradually mak ing their presence felt in student politics in Punjab and Chandig arh. Their growing influence is reflect ed on their Facebook pages.
According to a senior police officer, gangsters and student politics have become insepara ble in Punjab. “Today's gangsters are not happy with routine crime life. They want to make a career out of it and there's no better way to do it than by promoting themselves as youth `leaders'. This explains why dozens of gangsters of Punjab promote and protect student parties,“ said a senior police officer.
Professor (Emeritus) Jitendra Mohan of Panjab University's Department of Psychology, says the rise of gangsters as heroes is a disturbing reality .
“Teenagers are impressionable and vulnerable to various influences. Such exposure on social media can have damaging results. Encouraging violence on social media can lead to further violence,“ said Professor Mohan.
In 2012, gangster Jaswinder Singh Rocky, who was subsequently slain, even contested elections from Fazilka and lost by a thin margin of 1,600 votes to BJP's Surjit Kumar Jyani. Many criminals seem to be following in his footsteps.
For example, Lawrence Bishnoi has been supporting Students' Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) and in one of the FB posts, he calls himself state president of SOPU. On his FB pages, many youngsters pose with guns and pistols, something they apparently started doing after following him. Pramod Kumar, director, Institute for Development and Communication, sees this as a manifestation of the culture of violence in society.
“We need to negate this culture of violence. To change this mindset, we need to begin by teaching our kids in schools that violence is not something to be cheered or celebrated. But regulating social media is a problem as it involves many issues, like who will regulate it and how and who will define the boundaries,“ added Kumar.
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About the Author
Saurabh Prashar

Saurabh Prashar is best known among colleagues as the ‘crime man’. He covers crime in Chandigarh and rest of Punjab, besides stories involving the CBI. The Ruchika-Rathore case was one of the most important stories that he’s been following up closely.

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