Saturday’s incident is the biggest one where eight undertrials, who were taken out for their court hearing, managed to give the police party a slip. In past, many incidents had occurred where single or two undertrials had escaped while being taken out of the jail for their court hearings. With yesterday’s incident, this year till now as many as 12 undertials have escaped from the custody of the Ludhiana police while being taken out for their court hearings.

In 2006, as many as eight undertrials had given the police a slip and last year nearly 20 undertrials fled from the police custody. In a major incident last year in August, a gang of over a dozen persons had rescued their accomplice from near the Jalandhar bye-pass when their accomplice was being brought to the city in a bus from Jalandhar jail for a court hearing here. These armed gang members had stopped the bus in a fashion which matched some Bollywood flick and rescued their accomplice.

Meanwhile, according to police sources, the members of Bangala gang, who escaped last night, had brutally murdered nearly one dozen persons while committing burglaries. One such burglary was committed at Kadupur village in Kapurthala district on the intervening night of September 25 and 26, 2003. Here the gang had seriously injured an old couple who later died at the hospital.

In another incident, the gang had killed a man and his son at Rurka Khurd village under Goraya police station in Jalandhar district on the intervening night of October 25 and 26, 2000. Besides, the gang had injured seven members of that family.