MANSA JAIL SUPDT HELD IN GRAFT CASE

BATHINDA : The vigilance bureau (VB) on Thursday arrested superintendent of Mansa jail, Davinder Singh Randhawa, in a corruption case. He was named in the case after Mansa jail welfare officer Sikander Singh and a murder convict Pawan Kumar locked in the jail were arrested taking bribe from the family of another inmate on a road outside the jail on December 17 last year.

The VB had also booked jail deputy superintendent Gurjit Singh in this connection, who is on the run.

Bathinda superintendent of police (VB) Bhupinder Singh said the call details of accused Pawan’s mobile phone revealed that he had talked to Randhawa before coming out of jail with Sikander Singh on December 17. The mobile was used in the jail regularly. Ravinder Singh, a resident of Shahbad in Haryana, had complained to VB that his brother Gaurav Kumar, a convict in a drug case, lodged in Mansa jail was being harassed for handing over Rs 86, 200 to some other inmates, whose family members had deposited the amount in Gaurav’s account. Gaurav worked as an assistant to Pawan in jail canteen, who is undergoing 20-year imprisonment in murder case.

As the deputy superintendent came to know about it, he started harassing him to pay the money. Gurjit had also beaten Gaurav in his office asking him to pay the money in bank account and an additional Rs 50, 000 after which Gaurav called his family asking them to pay money to avoid his torture, while deputy superintendent kept pressuring Gaurav through Pawan to pay the money.

Having laid a trap, Gaurav’s brother came with the money on December 17, 2017. Sikander Singh along with Pawan Kumar went to a place near jail to receive Rs 50, 000 in cash and a cheque for Rs 86, 200. They were arrested red handed. A case of criminal conspiracy and under Prevention of Corruption Act was registered against the accused.