38 minors escape from juvenile correctional home

NEW DELHI: In the fifth such incident in less than six months, 38 minors escaped from the juvenile correctional home in Kingsway Camp, north Delhi, after going on a rampage and clashing with guards on Monday afternoon.
The minors, who are sent to the facility by juvenile justice boards for being in conflict with the law, escaped in the melee by scaling two boundary walls.Five others were held while trying to flee while one escapee was later caught.
The incident was reported from the Adharshila correctional centre — within the Seva Kutir complex — which houses around 140 minors. Apparently, two of the inmates got into a brawl during a cricket match around 2.30pm. It soon turned into a group fight. When guards went to break up the brawl, the juveniles started pelting stones at them.
As the showdown was on, many inmates managed to sneak past the guards and reach the guard's tower near gate number 2, which is near the boundary wall. All of them quietly slipped over the boundary wall and managed to reach a compound beyond which there is a shorter, second wall which was scaled easily. The inmates escaped towards Najafgarh drain behind the correctional home.
Meanwhile, officials of the facility learnt about the unrest and assembled all inmates at the dormitories. A headcount revealed 38 inmates missing. They informed the police and other officials of the correctional home, who rushed to the spot and found one of the gates leading to the watch tower open.
A police team launched a search operation and managed to apprehend one of escapees and handed him over to home authorities.
"We have formed teams to search for them in the locality and are conducting checks at various points to nab them," said N Gnana Sambandan, DCP, northwest district.
Sources said police had earlier asked the facility's administrators to raise the height of the outer boundary wall since it was low enough for anyone to scale.