DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

The mastermind behind the 2016 Nabha jailbreak Ramanjit Singh was arrested on Thursday after his extradition by authorities in Hong Kong in an operation coordinated by the CBI and the Punjab Police, officials said. Singh, also known as Romi, who was facing an INTERPOL Red Notice, was flown in by a Punjab Police team and arrested on arrival in Delhi, they said. The officials said Romi was the key conspirator in the Nabha jailbreak incident in which six hardcore criminals, including two terrorists, managed to escape. "The Global Operations Centre of Central Bureau of Investigation has coordinated with Punjab Police and INTERPOL NCB- Hong Kong for the return of a Red Notice Subject Ramanjit Singh from Hong Kong to India on August 22," a CBI spokesperson said in a statement.

He said the CBI got a Red Notice issued against Singh from the INTERPOL General Secretariat on March 22, 2017, at the request of the Punjab Police.

"The subject was geolocated in Hong Kong in 2018 through INTERPOL and location was informed to Punjab police. A provisional arrest request was transmitted through INTERPOL in 2018. Subsequently Extradition request was forwarded by Punjab Police. The subject has been returned to India on August 22," the statement said.

Earlier in the day, Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav announced on 'X' that Ramanjit Singh has been extradited to India. "After tireless efforts by @PunjabPoliceInd, Romy, the key conspirator, is being brought back today to face justice. He was in touch with #ISI and other escaped prisoners, including Harminder Singh Mintu and Kashmir Singh Galwaddi of the Khalistan Liberation Force (#KLF)," he said in a post.

"Anti Gangster Task Force (#AGTF) Punjab is en route to bring Romy back. We thank the Hong Kong authorities, the CBI, Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of External Affairs and all other central agencies as part of this international cooperation," he added.

"Our relentless pursuit of justice led to: 1. Issuance of Look Out Circular (LOC) & Red Corner Notice (RCN) 2. Extradition process initiated in 2018 under MLAT with Hong Kong government 3. Robust presentation to Hong Kong's Department of Justice and Hon'ble Courts," Yadav said.

The extradition proceedings against Singh, a resident of Bangi Ruldu village of Bathinda, were initiated in 2018.

The Punjab Police's Assistant Inspector General H S Virk and Deputy Superintendent of Police Bikramjit Singh Brar accompanied Romi (35) on the flight.

On November 27, 2016, 16 criminals launched an attack on the prison and opened indiscriminate fire, managing to engineer the escape of six most-wanted criminals, including Harjinder Singh alias Vicky Gounder, Neeta Deol, Gurpreet Sekhon, Aman Dhotian and terrorists Harminder Mintoo and Kashmir Singh Galwaddi.

While Gounder was killed in a police encounter in January 2018 in Rajasthan, the others were arrested.

Commending the efforts that marked the culmination of an extraordinary international operation with the cooperation of the Ministry of External Affairs, Yadav said, "The extradition process was set in motion in 2018 as per the mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) with the Government of Special Administrative Region (SAR) Hong Kong, where the case was robustly presented to the Department of Justice and the Hon'ble Courts of Hong Kong." According to police, Romi coordinated the attack on the maximum security Nabha jail by providing financial and logistical support to the escapees.

He had provided weapons and fake IDs to gain access to the prison and funded the gangsters' preparations to execute the jailbreak, they said.

Romi, who was arrested in June 2016 in a weapons recovery and fake credit cards case, got bail in August 2016 and fled to Hong Kong. He was held in Hong Kong in February 2018 following accusations of his involvement in a robbery there.

A Punjab Police team visited Hong Kong in June 2018 and secured his provisional arrest. He had been in judicial custody there since then.
(editor@dailyworld.in)