Nabha Jailbreak Mastermind Gurpreet Singh Sekhon Joins AAP Ahead of 2027 Punjab Elections

PUNJAB - Gurpreet Singh Sekhon, a gangster-turned-politician who was the main accused and alleged mastermind behind the high-profile 2016 Nabha jailbreak, formally joined the Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday, September 6, 2026, months ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections scheduled for 2027. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann personally inducted Sekhon at a rally in the Zira subdivision of Ferozepur district, placing the party scarf around him in front of a large gathering, a move that has triggered political controversy and sharp criticism from opposition parties.

The Induction Event in Zira

The induction took place at a public rally organised in Zira, Ferozepur district, where Chief Minister Mann welcomed Sekhon and his supporters into the AAP fold. In a social media post, the party's Punjab unit stated, "Impressed by the pro-people policies of AAP, Gurpreet Singh Sekhon and his supporters have joined the AAP," accompanied by photographs of Mann and Sekhon from the event. Addressing the gathering, Mann, in an apparent reference to Sekhon's past, remarked that a person should not be judged merely by his past, and that circumstances could sometimes push people toward what he called the "wrong" path, a statement widely interpreted as a defence of the decision to bring a figure with Sekhon's criminal history into the party.

Notably, AAP's sitting MLA from the Zira constituency, Naresh Kataria, was also present on stage during the induction, alongside other local AAP leaders. However, according to reporting from The Tribune, Kataria's camp has reportedly been unhappy with the move to induct Sekhon, and Kataria himself did not respond to media queries about the possibility of being replaced as the party's candidate for the seat. Political analysts and multiple news outlets have suggested that AAP may field Sekhon as its candidate from Zira in the upcoming 2027 Punjab Assembly election, a speculation fuelled further by the fact that Sekhon had reportedly opened a political office in the area roughly ten days before formally joining the party.

Who Is Gurpreet Singh Sekhon: The 2016 Nabha Jailbreak

To understand why Sekhon's induction has become a major political flashpoint, it is necessary to revisit the events of November 27, 2016, when six prisoners escaped from the high-security Nabha jail in Patiala district after a heavily armed gang stormed the facility disguised as police personnel. The escapees included two individuals identified as terrorists, Harminder Singh alias Mintoo and Kashmir Singh, along with four gangsters, Harjinder Bhullar alias Vicky Gounder, Kulpreet Singh alias Neeta Deol, Amandeep Singh Dhotian, and Gurpreet Singh Sekhon himself. The brazen, broad-daylight escape from a high-security facility was described at the time as a major breakdown in prison security and drew national attention.

Sekhon, then a confidant of gangster Vicky Gounder and a member of what was known as the Jaipal gang before forming his own criminal outfit, was recaptured in February 2017 following a two-hour police operation and a brief encounter in Dhudike village, Moga district, alongside three of his associates. At the time of his arrest, police described him as the mastermind of the jailbreak and said he was facing more than a dozen cases, including thirteen related to murder and attempted murder, in addition to being wanted in cases across both Punjab and Chandigarh. He was formally convicted in the jailbreak case in March 2023 and sentenced to ten years of rigorous imprisonment. He subsequently secured bail in November 2023 pending further legal proceedings and has remained out on bail since, meaning his conviction in the case is not yet the final word in the matter as appeals or further proceedings continue.

From Prison to Politics: Sekhon's Path Before Joining AAP

According to multiple Tribune reports tracing his trajectory over the past two years, Sekhon began transitioning into local politics and social work after his release from custody, describing his time in prison, during which he says he spent considerable time reciting Gurbani, Sikh religious scripture as a personally transformative experience that led him away from crime. He has publicly maintained that he has left his criminal past behind and now wishes to serve the public, and has pointed to what he describes as neglected local development issues, including poor road infrastructure connecting to Gurdwara Bazidpur Sahib, as motivating his entry into public life.

Sekhon's political involvement first became visible when two of his female relatives, his wife, Mandeep Kaur, and another relative, Kuljeet Kaur contested Zila Parishad and Block Samiti elections as independent candidates in the Bazidpur and Ferozeshah zones respectively, both winning their seats with backing from the Shiromani Akali Dal. Sekhon personally led their campaigns and was reported to have built a substantial local following, reportedly amassing around 50,000 followers on Facebook and travelling with a noticeable security presence. Ahead of those local body elections, Sekhon was arrested by Ferozepur police in a move he publicly alleged was politically motivated pressure from the then-ruling AAP administration, a claim that led hundreds of his supporters to block the Ferozepur–Ludhiana national highway (NH-5) in protest outside the local police station, demanding his release. He had also previously indicated intentions to contest the 2027 Punjab Assembly election as an independent candidate before his formal induction into AAP this week.

Political Backlash and a Striking Historical Irony

Sekhon's induction into AAP has drawn sharp criticism from opposition parties in Punjab. Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring questioned what message the Aam Aadmi Party was sending by welcoming a jailbreak-linked figure into its ranks, warning the state government against what he characterised as "incentivising gangster culture." The Shiromani Akali Dal also criticised the move, drawing a contrast between AAP's own ongoing state campaign against gangsters in Punjab and its decision to formally embrace a figure convicted in connection with one of the most notorious criminal incidents in the state's recent history.

The criticism carries additional weight given AAP's own past statements on the very incident at the centre of Sekhon's history. At the time of the 2016 jailbreak, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had described the incident as reflecting a "complete breakdown of law and order" in Punjab, while Bhagwant Mann, then not yet Chief Minister, had gone further and alleged that the jailbreak had actually been engineered as part of a plot to have both him and Kejriwal killed. A decade later, it is Mann himself, now serving as Punjab's Chief Minister, who has personally welcomed one of the six men who escaped in that same jailbreak into his own party's fold, a juxtaposition that opposition leaders and commentators have highlighted as a notable political reversal.

For now, Sekhon has stated that any decision on whether he will be given the AAP ticket from Zira rests with the party, and he is reportedly expected to formally launch his campaign in the constituency in the coming weeks. Whether AAP ultimately fields him as its official candidate, replacing sitting MLA Naresh Kataria, remains to be seen, but the induction itself has already reshaped the early political conversation ahead of Punjab's 2027 Assembly elections, placing questions about candidate selection, criminal backgrounds in politics, and the party's own past rhetoric squarely at the centre of the debate.