Six prisoners injured in clash in Punjab jail

Six persons were injured in a clash between two groups of prisoners in the district jail premises here, after which the authorities shifted nine of them to other jails of Punjab.

Superintendent of the district jail Sat Pal Singh said today that the clash between two prisoner groups broke out last evening "on some minor issue probably of supremacy over each other".

Spoons with sharp edges meant for chopping onion or vegetables were used by both the groups to attack each other.

The police were called in and with the help of the jail staff forced the prisoners to return to their barracks.

Later, a case under various sections of the IPC was registered against a few undertrial prisoners .

Deputy inspector general of police (Prisons) Jagjit Singh, who visited the jail and met the prisoners, told reporters that to avoid recurrence of such an incident some prisoners had been shifted to Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Bathinda jails.

Sat Pal Singh said the district jail complex was overcrowded with convicts and undertrials.

"634 prisoners and 156 convicts have been housed in the jail having a capacity to house 478 at a time", he said.