To meet girlfriend,jail inmate recreates Sholay scene

An undertrial climbed atop a water tank,threatened to jump if he was not allowed to meet girlfriend and provided charas.

There was high drama at the Gurdaspur Central Jail on Sunday after an undertrial climbed atop a 100ft high water tank inside the jail and threatened to jump,if authorities did not cede to his demands that included arranging a meeting with his girlfriend,providing him cigarettes and charas. The incident delayed the inspection visit of Justice M Jeyapaul.

The two-hour sequence of events was reminiscent of the Bollywood flick Sholays famous scene where an inebriated Veeru (Dharmendra) climbs atop a water tank and blames Mausi (a character in the film) for not permitting his marriage to Basanti (Hema Malini). The Veeru of Sunday was Joginder Pal,a resident of Batala and an undertrial in an Excise Act violation case,who had landed in Gurdaspur jail only on Saturday.

It took more than two hours to bring Pal to the ground with the jail administration finally acceding to one of his demands by sending him a cigarette. Four commandos disguised as prisoners took the cigarette to him and also assured him that it was filled with charas. Even after overpowering the smoking Pal,the commandos had a difficult time bringing him down as he offered stiff resistance. While there were no high end cameras as was the case in Sholay to capture the scenes,a CCTV camera installed atop the water tank,recorded the whole episode.

Earlier,preparing itself for Justice Jeyapauls visit,the already on-tenterhooks administration was taken by surprise and went into a tizzy after learning that Joginder Pal had climbed atop the water tank by hoodwinking jail officials.

Sources said the visit of Justice Jeyapaul to the jail was delayed by nearly two hours due to the ensuing drama. Justice Jeyapaul came to the jail from the BSF Rest House only after Joginder Pal was brought down. I had requested Justice M Jeyapaul to delay the visit for some time, said Gurdaspur jail superintendent Shammi Kumar.

It was a risky proposition to bring Pal down after being lured with cigarette by our commandos disguised as prisoners. Even Justice Jeyapaul could not believe that our commandos had brought him down from such a height, Shammi said. He was threatening to jump from the water tank demanding that his meeting be arranged with his girlfriend and a cigarette and Charas be provided to him, Shammi added. As a precautionary measure after the incident,we have removed the iron ladder used as preliminary approach to reach the water tank stairs, the jail superintendent said. We would seek registration of an attempt to suicide case against Pal, he added.

It is learnt that the under-trial met Justice Jeyapaul later to tell him of his grievances. Shammi said the PA of Justice Jeyapaul later called him to see if the bailout of the undertrial could be expedited. His bail plea is to be decided on March 31,Shammi added.

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