Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday ordered a magisterial inquiry by the Commissioner of Jalandhar into the escape of three undertrial prisoners from the high security Central Jail in Amritsar, and has also directed the Jails Minister to immediately suspend all those responsible for the prison security.

The prisoners, who escaped in the early hours of Sunday, have been identified as Gurpreet Singh, Jarnail Singh and Vishal Kumar.

The jailbreak came barely three months after the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was deployed in all the jails, including the Amritsar Central Jail.

A statewide hunt has been launched for the escaped prisoners, and the Chief Minister has also ordered the Additional Director General (Jails) to revamp prison security in the wake of the incident, which came to light around 3.20 a.m., less than two hours after the undertrial prisoners broke their barrack and escaped by scaling the walls of the jail, as per the CCTV footage of the prison.

Taking serious note of the security lapse, the Chief Minister said prison security would be reviewed and further strengthened, not just in this jail but in the others across the state too.

The prison guards were alerted about the escape by other inmates, who included the brother of one of the escaped prisoners, according to initial reports.

There was no evidence of outside help, according to preliminary investigations, which suggest that the trio, among 61 prisoners in barrack no. 7, had planned the escape on their own.

Giving details Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta said the men apparently made a hole in the wall of their barrack by removing about 10 bricks. They then appeared to have scaled the inner wall, about 16 feet high, by standing one atop the other, while the outer wall, 21 feet approximately, was crossed by them using a hook made of a steel bar and the cover of a quilt to make a ladder.

They finally escaped the jail complex from a point near tower no 10, which was not under the CCTV cover.

One of the escaped prisoners has been identified as: Vishal Kumar, 22, of Amritsar. He was lodged in Jail on April 5, 2019.

The other two are brothers, identified as Gurpreet Singh, 34, and Jarnail Singh, 25, of Khadoor Sahib in Tarn Taran district. They were lodged in the prison on July 8, 2019.

Vishal’s brother Gaurav, also in the same barrack, chose not to flee with them, said the DGP.