CUTTACK: Even as six days have passed since two under-trial prisoners (UTPs) escaped the Choudwar Circle Jail during the Durga Puja festivities, the Commissionerate Police is yet to make a headway in tracing them.
The two inmates, Raja Sahani from Lohia Nagar and Madhukant Kumar from Rampur in Bihar, had fled on October 2 by cutting the iron rods of their cells and then climbing two walls.
Taking advantage of the warder’s absence, the two had cut one bar each from their cells to create a 12-inch gap and slipped out from their cells. They had used blankets, towels, shirts and even their trousers in preparing a makeshift rope through which they climbed the 17-feet high inner wall and the 25-feet outer wall to escape.
Following the incident, the chief warder and warder who were on duty at that time were suspended for negligence and an investigation by DIG Anasuya Jena is on to ascertain how they obtained the tools to cut the iron bars and if any jail staff helped them flee.
More so, this was not the first time that the duo attempted to escape. On July 21, two broken saw blades were recovered from their possession but the jail authorities just shifted them to two separate high security cells instead of lodging an FIR or making any inquiry.
Despite knowing of their escape attempts in the past, the routine cell inspections mandated under the jail manual were allegedly ignored. In such a situation, the suspension of the chief warder and the warder appears like an attempt to protect the real culprits behind the incident.
Though the Commissionerate Police declared a `50,000 cash reward for any credible information on the duo and three police teams were formed to trace them, no breakthrough has been achieved in the matter so far. One police team was sent to Bihar but it returned empty- handed confirming the two are neither in Odisha nor in Bihar.
Following the jailbreak, a search inside the cells is said to have led to the recovery of a mobile phone, charger and power bank concealed inside the toilet. Investigators also found that the CCTV camera facing the cell had been deliberately turned away, indicating clear signs of premeditated planning. Involvement of jail staff in the matter cannot be ruled out, police said.
