CUTTACK: Exposing serious lapses in the security arrangements at the Choudwar Circle Jail, two undertrial prisoners (UTPs) escaped from the prison by scaling the walls late on Thursday night.
The escaped prisoners have been identified as Raja Sahani from Lohia Nagar and Madhukant Kumar from Rampur in Bihar. The two were arrested on January 4 for allegedly committing a robbery at a jewellery shop in Panikoili in Jajpur district and killing two people during the heist. They were moved from Ragadi sub-jail of the district to Choudwar Jail a few months back for security reasons.
According to sources, the duo took advantage of the Dussehra celebrations in the jail on the day. At around 1.20 am, seeing absence of the warder or guards, they broke out of their cells. They reportedly cut the iron bars of their cells and scaled two jail walls to make their way out.
Sources confirmed that both, hardcore criminals, had made several escape attempts in the recent past. On July 21, jail staff found two broken saw blades in their possession during a search.
The search was carried out after receiving information that the duo was planning to dig through the boundary wall. As a result, they were placed in separate high-security cells. However, no further investigation was done to find out how they got the saw blades, or take preventive measures.
On Thursday night, both prisoners taking advantage of the absence of the duty warder cut one bar each from their cells to create a 12-inch gap and slipped out.
They then tied their blankets into a rope and used it to climb the 17 feet high inner wall and the 25 feet outer wall, hooking the rope on to the iron pins set in the walls.
The jailbreak was discovered on Friday morning. Senior officials, including director general of prisons Sushant Kumar Nath, Cuttack DCP Khilari Rishikesh Dnyandeo and ACP Arun Kumar Swain visited the jail and began an investigation with the help of a dog squad.
The chief warder and the warder on duty that night have been suspended for negligence. DIG Anasuya Jena is leading the investigation to ascertain how the prisoners obtained tools to cut the iron bars and whether any jail staff helped them escape. A reward of Rs 50,000 has been announced for anyone providing credible information on them. Suspicion of foul play has been raised, as none of the jail warders, staff, or those on the four watch towers noticed them breaking out of their cells and climbing the walls, even though the jail is covered by around 100 CCTV cameras.