Ferozepur: A prisoner today escaped from police custody while he was being taken to Zira sub-division court here for a hearing in a case, police said.

Balwinder Singh alias Golu, a resident of Shah Abu Bakkar in Zira, was under trial in the Faridkot Jail following a case lodged against him under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in 2015 for drug peddling, they said.

He was being taken from Faridkot to Zira on a private bus, and then through an auto rickshaw, when just before reaching the courts the incident took place, Jaspal Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Zira, said.

"Today when a police party led by Gurcharan Singh Head constable was taking him to the Zira court, two unidentified masked motorbike riders got him freed from the police custody at gun point," he said.

The DSP said that the fugitive prisoner was a history- sheeter and three cases under the NDPS Act had been lodged against him at various police stations in Ferozepur, Zira and Nihal Singh Wala.

"The police is interrogating the police party which was escorting Balwinder," he said.