Undertrials flee from prison van, one held

KOLKATA: Three undertrials managed to escape from a prison van at the city sessions court on Monday morning. Police later managed to nab one of them. A departmental inquiry has been initiated against an officer and a constable, who were in charge of escorting the prisoners.
Around 10.30 am, Subrata Banerjee, Raju Paswan and Rajesh Prajapati were brought to the city sessions court from the Presidency Correctional Home for their trial on robbery charges.All the three were arrested in August 2005 in connection with a robbery at Jorabagan in north Kolkata. They robbed cash and ornaments from Puja Jewelleries on Nimtala Ghat Street at gunpoint. Police submitted the chargesheet against the three on October 17, 2005.
Like other days, they were in the prison van, which was locked and guarded by an assistant sub-inspector and a constable of the city police's reserve force. Senior officers said the officer went into the court building to submit some documents while the constable was in front of the van. He suddenly found its collapsible gate unlocked with a pair of handcuffs hanging and none of the three inside.
Police raised an alarm and Subrata was found near the city civil court. The other two remained untraced till late on Monday. Eyewitnesses claimed that the officer was smoking near the van and the constable had opened its gate to escort the prisoners to court. Raju pushed the constable aside and took to his heels, they said. When the constable and the officer gave chase, two others remained unguarded and fled. "Raju is a resident of the KPT quarters at Jorabagan and Rajesh is from Salkia, Howrah. We have raided their homes and a few other places, too," said Pradip Chatterjee, joint commissioner of police (administration).
Months ago, Raju had attacked fellow prisoners with a razor in a van and injured them. Since then, police decided to take him and his two cronies separately from others. Police also said Raju had once fled from police custody in 2005.