Chandigarh, December 25: A preliminary inquiry conducted on the orders of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has ruled out any links of Jaggu Bhagwanpuria with Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, a senior Punjab Police officer said on Wednesday, while rejecting allegations of the notorious gangster being given five-star treatment in jail under political pressure.
Jaggu has been in the limelight recently amid allegations and counter-allegations of his purported links with senior politicians.
In the wake of reports of these allegations, the Chief Minister had directed an inquiry to be conducted under the supervision of DGP (Intelligence), and had also asked that the same be expedited and a fact-finding report be submitted as soon as possible. Though the final report is yet to come, initial investigations have showed no links whatsoever between the gangster and Randhawa, according to the Intelligence Wing of the Punjab Police.
Punjab Police has also categorically denied any political pressure on the police to go soft on the gangster, pointing out that the crackdown on associates and aides of Jaggu had been continuing for the past several months.
Last month, Baljit Singh was apprehended in Amritsar district with arms and gold, while in October, gangster Harminder Singh was arrested in Jalandhar district with a large amount of arms and ammunition. Both are known to be close aides of Jaggu.
Earlier, in May, the police had arrested another of Jaggu’s close associates, Category `A’ gangster Shubham Singh, reported to be involved in the murder of a Hindu Sangharsh Sena leader and Amritsar municipal councilor. Several other such arrests have taken place in the past few months, said Punjab Police Spokesperson.
ADGP (Prisons) denied any five-star treatment for the gangster in Patiala Central Jail, where he has been kept in the High Security Zone of the Jail.
Preliminary enquiry by ADGP Prisons had revealed that Jaggu Bhagwanpuria continues to be lodged in a seperate cell like other prisoners lodged in High Security Zones and his activities are on continuous and strict watch.
Jaggu, a dreaded gangster primarily active in Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts, had been Involved in many cases of murder, contract killing, robbery, extortion, gundagardi like activities. He was allegedly involved in at least 47 cases during the Akali regime.
In September 2014, during the Akali government, he had killed another gangster Sanjiv Kumar @ Babba in Amritsar. Babba, who was then out from Jail on parole, was serving life imprisonment for killing of another gangster Raju Chikna in January 2010 in Amritsar Court Complex. Jaggu has been in prison since his arrest in July 2015.
