VELLORE: A 37-year-old vegetable vendor from Tripura, who was arrested by Vellore Police for making hoax bomb threat calls to CMC Hospital two months ago, gave them the slip at Itarsi Junction in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday night when he was being taken to Lucknow for a court hearing.
Sources in the police department said a six-member team, led by sub-inspector of AR police Lorthusamy, was taking S Syed Ahmed Ali, a resident of Unakoti district in Tripura, to the Additional Chief Magistrate’s Court in Lucknow for hearing in a case filed against him. The case was filed against him for making a bomb threat call to the Railway Protection Force in Lucknow. It was scheduled for hearing on Friday.
The escort team boarded the Raptisagar Super Fast Express on January 19 at Katpadi and they were to reach Lucknow on Thursday morning. However, Ali managed to escape from the police team when the train entered Itarsi at 11 pm on Wednesday. A case has been registered with the Railway Police in Itarsi.
The police personnel escorting Ali reportedly told officers in Vellore that three of them had alighted from the train to buy tea, while three others were being inquired by the Railway Police when the train halted at the station. Making use of the opportunity, Ali slipped away. “The escort team is giving different versions. The accused (Ali) could have mingled with passengers and slipped away from the escort team when they fell asleep,” said a reliable police source.
Vellore district police officers said they had sent an official communication to the Superintendent of Railway Police, Lucknow, before Pongal, requesting the officer to send their men to take Ali to the court. However, authorities at Vellore Central Prison for Men, where Ali was lodged, had pressured them to deputise the AR men from Vellore to escort Ali to Lucknow. Following this, the district police deputised the six-member team.
“A four-member police team led by DSP Rathinakumar will leave Vellore on Thursday night to inquire with the Itarsi RP to nab Ali,” Vellore SP P K Senthilkumari told Express.
Ali was arrested on October 15 from Ambur Town for making two hoax bomb threat calls to the CMC Hospital. After finding 11 SIM cards in his possession, the police grew suspicious about his terror links. However, inquiry ruled out that he had any terror link. Ali was a cancer patient and the disease was in an advanced stage. He had come to the CMC for treatment. After he failed to get an appointment, he made the threat calls to the hospital. Ali had also made calls to authorities that he would blow up a dargah in Ajmer and the Taj Mahal. The police were on the look out for him.