Controversial Shiv Sena (Hindu) leader stabbed inside Punjab jail

PATIALA: Self-styled president of All India Shiv Sena (Hindu) Nishant Sharma, who was on Monday sentenced to four years of jail term in a case of fraud, was allegedly attacked by some militant sympathisers inside the Ropar sub-jail in a bid to kill him. He, however, has survived the attack.
Nishant was on the hit list of militants for his utterances against Sikh radicals and slapping Jagtar Singh Hawara, the parallel Jathedar of Akal Takht appointed by the Sikh radicals during his court hearings at Chandigarh Court Complex.
He was lodged in a separate barrack when at least five persons attacked him around 5 am on Tuesday while he was sleeping.
The police said that he was stabbed multiple times by the attackers who broke open the lock of the barrack and inflicted injuries in his abdomen, forehead, hand and neck before the security staff reached there to rescue him. He was immediately rushed to the civil hospital at the district headquarters and after he was administered treatment, he was brought back to the jail.
Later, IG (Prison) V Neerja and SSP Swapan Sharma visited the jail and hospital. SSP said no arrest had been made so far and an investigation had been ordered to identify the accused. He said that the barrack was locked from outside.
Nishant Sharma faces many criminal cases. He was a complainant in a bribery case against AIG Vigilance PS Sandhu, but later turned hostile. Sandhu was arrested taking Rs 50,000 bribe to save Nishant in a case being probed him.
Nishant had been booked in 2011 by Kurali police on the complaint of Hisar resident Anil Kumar, who had alleged that he duped him of Rs 1.50 lakh. It was in this case that a Ropar court had awarded him four years of imprisonment following which he was taken into custody by the Ropar police. He was being kept at the sub-jail from where he was to be shifted to one of the central jails of Punjab to serve his term.
He had earlier been provided with a security cover by the Punjab police as radicals had vowed to eliminate him for his stand against the Sikh militants.