Nabha jailbreak: Kingpin says 8 people involved; hiding in Haryana, UP

Muzaffarnagar: The alleged mastermind in the Nabha jailbreak case Parminder has claimed that eight persons were involved in the incident and the five fugitives were in Karnal and Panipat in search of a hideout, police said on Monday.

Parminder alias Penda, who was arrested on Sunday in Shamli district hours after the jailbreak in which six prisoners including Khalistani Liberation Force (KLF) Chief Harminder Singh Mintoo escaped, told police during interrogation that he was staying in a hideout in Dehradun.

He claimed that besides him seven persons were involved in the jailbreak and he was in contact with them through whatsapp.

During interrogation, Parminder said that he was also involved in narcotic smuggling in states including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab, SP Ajay Sharma said.

Parminder was accused of killing Punjab police inspector Gurudev and he was on the run, police said.

Last evening, when he was travelling to Dehradun his vehicle was intercepted by police at a check post in Kairana in Shamli district in western Uttar Pradesh, police said.

Further investigations also revealed that Parminder was also involved in theft cases.

Police said it had recovered two SLRs, three other rifles, 544 cartridges and mobile phone from his possession.

Meanwhile, another car was on Monday found abandoned in a village in Haryana's Kaithal district after the Nabha jailbreak incident.

The car was found abandoned in Pharal village in Kaithal district. Kaithal in Haryana is about 70 km from Nabha in Punjab where the jailbreak incident took place yesterday.

"A car has been found in the village. Further investigations were under progress," Kaithal's SP Sumer Partap Singh said, adding police and forensic experts were examining the car.

Another car had been found abandoned on Sunday in Solumajra in Kaithal and is suspected to have been used by prisoners who escaped from the Nabha jail.

"Some Punjab Police uniforms and some telephone numbers written on torn pieces of papers had been found from the car which was found in Solumajra. Further investigation in the matter is being conducted by Punjab Police," Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kaithal, Tarun Kumar said. The car bore a fake Punjab registration number, he said.

Police teams from Punjab were called in for a coordinated investigation in the case.

Khalistan Liberation Front Chief Harminder Singh Mintoo, who had escaped from Nabha jail in Punjab along with five other inmates on Sunday, was on Monday nabbed from Nizamuddin Railway Station in Delhi.