Mastermind of Nabha jailbreak, 3 gangsters nabbed in Punjab

CHANDIGARH: Four gangsters, including the "mastermind" of last year's Nabha jailbreak, were today nabbed from a house in Dhudike village of Moga district in Punjab, police said.

"Gurpreet Singh Sekhon, who had escaped from Nabha jail last year, and three gangsters have been arrested," Punjab Police, AIG (Counter Intelligence) Gurmit Singh Chauhan said today.

The three others who have been arrested are Manvir Sekhon, cousin of Gurpreet, Rajwinder Singh and Kulwinder Singh from the house of an NRI, the officer said.

Acting on a tip-off, 25 policemen, including 10 members of police's Special Weapons and Tactics ( SWAT) team, nabbed the gangsters, Chauhan said.

"Our operation was so precise that we did not give the gangsters time to retaliate or draw their weapons," he said, adding four weapons and two cars were seized from them.

With the nabbing of Gurpreet, so far three of the six Nabha jail escapees have been apprehended. Earlier, Khalistan Liberation Force Chief Harminder Singh Mintoo was nabbed from Nizamuddin railway station in Delhi and Neeta Deol from Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

On November 27, Mintoo, another terrorist Kashmir Singh, and gangsters Amandeep Dhothian, Vicky Gounder, Gurpreet Sekhon and Neeta Deol had escaped from Nabha jail after armed men in police uniform tricked the sentries into opening the gates and bolted out with the inmates firing a hail of bullets.

Gurpreet Sekhon was the mastermind of the jailbreak and he was allegedly involved in several murders, kidnapping, extortion cases. Manvir and Rajwinder had attacked the jail officials to free the inmates, police said.

Kulwinder, a resident of Bathinda, had taken care of the logistics to facilitate the escape of six prisoners, they said.