Nabha Maximum Security Jail

The Nabha Maximum Security Jail is a high-security prison in Nabha, Punjab, run by the Punjab prison department. It appears in this record twice: as the jail where the Bandi Singh Lal Singh was held for years, and as the site of an armed jailbreak on 27 November 2016.

Key moments

• 1992 to 1997: Lal Singh, known as Akalgarh, was arrested on 14 July 1992 and sentenced to life by a TADA court in Gujarat on 8 January 1997. Sikh Siyasat News says he was held in this jail before his release.
• 27 November 2016: The Tribune reported that six men, five of them in police uniform, arrived in four cars, overpowered the sentries and freed six prisoners in about 20 minutes. The Tribune named them as Harminder Singh Mintoo (49), head of the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), Harjinder Singh Bhullar alias Vicky Gounder, Kashmir Singh, Gurpreet Sekhon, Neeta Deol and Amandeep Dhotian. Its lead called two of them "terrorists" and four "gangsters". A sentry was hit in the face with a revolver and another was taken hostage. The paper gave the shots fired as over 50 in its lead and over 20 according to its sources.
• After the break: the jail superintendent and his deputy were dismissed, the head of prisons was suspended, a special investigation team was set up with a Rs 25 lakh reward, and a case was registered against 36 people. The Tribune said police feared the prisoners had been waiting near the inside gate, which it said hinted at collusion inside the jail. Mintoo was recaptured within a day at Nizamuddin railway station in Delhi.
• 18 April 2018: Mintoo died in Patiala Central Jail. Officials said it was a cardiac arrest, and the head of prisons recommended a judicial inquiry (The Tribune).
• 3 March 2020: the Gujarat government sent Lal Singh's release order to the Nabha jail. The Punjab government delayed it, citing "technical" reasons.
• 24 August 2020: Lal Singh was freed for good after about 28 years. His advocate, Jaspal Singh Manjhpur, said he should have been released more than a decade earlier.

What it means to the Panth. The jail shows two things in the record. One is the length of detention in the Bandi Singh cases: 28 years for Lal Singh, with a release order held up in Punjab for months after Gujarat sent it. The other is the 2016 break, which the Tribune said hinted at collusion inside the jail.