Convict escapes from Mansa jail, ‘will return after another murder’

Murder convict Gurtej Singh, serving a life sentence since 2005, escaped from the Mansa jail on Thursday afternoon. And that has led to unravelling of an apparently cosy relationship between the jail authorities and the gangster.

Gurtej was cleaning the waterworks of the jail outside the premises, in the fields, and managed to escape despite three cops monitoring him.

“He was good in cleaning the waterworks and, in good faith, we had engaged him there. He has been staying in the jail for the last many years, due to which we never thought that he will attempt to escape,” said a prison policeman, not willing to be identified.

He was noticed missing only after other prisoners on the job alerted the cops about his absence.

Though he escaped in the afternoon,

BEHIND BARS FOR YEARS, GURTEJ WAS CLEANING THE WATERWORKS OF THE JAIL OUTSIDE THE PREMISES, IN THE FIELDS, AND MANAGED TO ESCAPE DESPITE 3 COPS MONITORING HIM

the district police were informed around 7pm, after which senior superintendent of police (SSP) Viveksheel Soni and other senior officials visited the prison. But they refused to comment.

Another source in the jail security said Gurtej contacted a policeman and said he would return to the prison after committing another murder.

“He said he is in Barnala district and will return only after killing a person,” said a wellplaced source in the police department.

Jail superintendent Devender Singh Randhawa, however, said Gurtej will be nabbed “by the morning”.

Surprisingly, the cops knew that he had kept a cellphone inside the jail, and that was put under surveillance to track his location after the escape. The police, however, said they do not have any photograph of the convict.

‘WAS TO BE RELEASED IN TWO MONTHS’

Gurtej was serving life imprisonment in a murder case registered in 2005 at Bareta police station in Mansa district. “Based on his application for mercy, he was to be released after two months,” said the jail superintendent.

According to the case, Gurtej and his lover, Roshni, had killed her husband and thrown the body in a canal in Khudal village.

The body could not be traced. Roshni has served her jail sentence.