BELAGAVI: A death row convict has made a daring escape from the high-security Hindalga prison here by scaling the perimeter walls with the help of ropes and blankets. Though the incident took place on April 22 night, the jailbreak came to light only on Thursday. The Prisons Department on Thursday announced a cash reward for information leading to his arrest.
Murugesh alias Kannamucchi (51), a resident of Salem, Tamil Nadu, was awarded death penalty for hacking five people to death in Chamarajanagar in 2017. Speaking to TNIE, a prison official said he managed to climb the jail walls and jumped out during the night. He meticulously planned his escape. As most of the Home Guards posted in the prison were drawn for election duty, Murugan took advantage of the situation. After climbing the wall with the help of a rope, he spread a thick blanket on the top of the wall to avoid getting hurt by the sharp-edge iron rods. He then used the same ropes and iron rods to climb down to the other side. He is believed to have planned his escape with the help of some other inmates, but jail officials wouldn’t say anything.Jail Superintendent T Shesha did not respond to phone calls when contacted by TNIE on Thursday evening.
A case has been registered by Belagavi police.
A case had been filed against Murugan at Kollegal Rural police station on charges of killing five including an eight-year-old girl at a farm house at Harale village of Kollegal on May 11, 2015. After trial, the Chamarajanagar District Session Court sentenced him to death. He was lodged in the Chamarajanagar central prison between May 13, 2015 and July 23, 2017. The Department of Prisons shifted him to Hindalga prison in Belagavi in July 2017. Hindalga is one of the few prisons in the country where hanging of death convicts is carried out.
Third case of prison break at Hindalga prison
Murugesh’s escape is said to be the third case of prison break at the historic Hindalga prison. The last incident occurred on August 28, 2010 and prior to that in 1974. With several criminals facing capital punishment, the jail presently has more than 800 prisoners.On August 28, 2010, undertrial Walli Ahmed, a notorious thief from Belagavi city, had managed to squeeze out of the toilet window of a barrack and later used a thick bamboo stalk to scale the prison wall and slithered out. Sources said a gang of four dacoits had escaped from the prison in the same fashion in 1974.
The four notorious dacoits were brought to Hindalga from Dharwad jail after they were sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment.It took 15 days for the four to plan their escape. They used to cut the thick rod of their barrack window inch by inch every day and had managed to break it on the fifteenth day. Then, they cut the long pipeline connected to a drainage inside the prison and used it to climb the wall and jump out.
After the incident, the jail authorities had initiated several measures to prevent such incidents. They have installed security cameras inside the prison to keep track of every inmate.It may also be noted that undertrial Nagendra Reddy, who was lodged in Hindalga prison in connection with five murders, had managed to escape on May 10, 2009 after killing a police constable who was guarding him at Belagavi government hospital.
Reddy was a software engineer against whom even the Interpol had sounded a red alert in connection with the murder of a software engineer in the UK where he worked for some time earlier.