Inmates jumped the prison wall during Ramleela performance
Monday, 14 OCTOBER 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Two prisoners escaped from Haridwar district jail on October 11 while prison guards and officials were occupied with a Ramleela performance inside the prison. One of the escapees was serving a life sentence and the other was an undertrial. Their absence went unnoticed until it was too late for prison authorities to apprehend them, as per the officials. The duo, who were reportedly participating as members of the Vanar Sena in the play, took advantage of the distraction and fled while pretending to search for Sita.
The convicts include Pankaj, a sharpshooter from the Praveen Valmiki gang, serving a life sentence for the murder of a sanitation worker in Roorkee and Rajkumar, an undertrial from Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, facing charges of kidnapping. A third prisoner also reportedly attempted to escape but was unsuccessful in scaling the wall. According to officials, the prisoners exploited a lapse in the jail’s security measures. It is being speculated that the prisoners had earlier noticed two ladders left at a construction site within the premises. During the Ramleela, they used clothes to secure the ladders and scale the wall, taking advantage of the guards’ distraction. The chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami ordered an investigation under the DIG Prison. Six jail staff members were also suspended for alleged negligence on Saturday. The officials said that a case has been registered under the relevant sections and investigation is ongoing.
