As many as 11 undertrial prisoners undergoing treatment for mental illness at the Institute of Mental Health in Erragadda escaped Monday night. While eight of them were nabbed, three are still at large.
They made a hole in the wall of the prisoners’ ward after taking 50-odd patients hostage and fled around 1.30 a.m., police said. One of the prisoners, Fahauddin Qureshi (38), facing charges under 498A, 506 of the IPC and the NDPS Act and shifted recently from the Chanchalguda prison, made the hole using medical equipment, including oxygen cylinders.
Before escaping, he burnt all available hospital records, including his and his fellow-prisoners’ case-sheets. “Qureshi was angry at not being permitted to meet his second wife on Monday night. We could not permit mulaqat as she had rrived around 8 p.m.,” Dr Pramod Kumar, hospital superintendent, said.
Qureshi bolted the ward from inside and threatened other patients with a cable wire. “As the situation was getting out of hand, we informed the SR Nagar police,” he said adding that in the meanwhile, Qureshi made a hole in the wall and escaped along with some others. Of the 11 prisoners, who had escaped, three including Qureshi are yet to be nabbed. The other two are Tirumalesh (27) from Kadapa and D Jeevarathnam (25) from Warangal.
V Satyanarayana, DCP (West Zone) said Qureshi had fled with his wife in a Chevrolet Tavera that was waiting for him at his residence in Nampally. “We have arrested a woman who helped them flee. We will first want to find out if he is really ill,” he said.