Khalistani terrorist Harminder Singh Mintoo escaped from Punjab's Nabha jail on Sunday
Highlights
- Harminder Mintoo, five others escaped from Punjab's Nabha jail on Sunday
- Jailbreak by a group of armed men who stormed prison, fired several shots
- Mintoo, a Khalistani terrorist, arrested at railway station in Delhi
Escaped Khalistani terrorist Harminder Singh Mintoo was caught in Delhi today, 24 hours after a sensational jailbreak in Punjab in which armed men helped him and five others run away from the high security Nabha prison. The other prisoners remain missing.
Mintoo's beard and moustache were trimmed to make him appear substantially different when he was tracked down at the parking lot of the Nizamuddin Railway station, from where he was planning to travel to Mumbai.
Mintoo, said the police, wanted to go to Goa, where he has spent 18 years. He was sent to 14-day judicial custody by a court at Kairana in Shamli district today.
On Sunday, a little before 9 am, a dozen men disguised as policemen arrived in four cars at the gates of the Nabha jail with two handcuffed men, claiming they were bringing them after a court hearing. After gaining entry, the men snatched the rifle of a policeman and fired over 100 rounds.
It took less than 10 minutes for the gang to drive the prisoners out of jail.
Hunting for the fugitives, the police opened fire at a car near a check-post around 25 km from the prison, killing a woman in what they admitted was a mistake.
Mintoo was dropped off around 90 km away at Haryana, from where he took a bus to Delhi. He was said to be taken aback at finding policemen waiting for him at the station.
One of the men involved in the jailbreak, Parwinder Singh Pinda, was caught last evening in Uttar Pradesh with a huge cache of arms. He told the police that Mintoo and another prisoner Kashmir Singh were not part of the plan that was meant for the escape of Vicky Gounder, a prisoner accused in several cases of murder and highway robbery. Mintoo allegedly found out about the jailbreak plan and tagged along.
Kashmir Singh is believed to be in Delhi.
49-year-old Mintoo, chief of the banned Khalistan Liberation Force, is accused in more than 10 terror cases, including an attack on Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim. He was arrested in 2014 when he arrived from Thailand at the Delhi airport.