Lax security helped undertrials escape

BEGUSARAI: Lack of proper security arrangement in and around the sessions court lock-up here is stated to be the reason behind the escape of seven alleged hardcore undertrial prisoners on Wednesday.
Located in the extreme eastern part of the sessions court compound, with a low-height boundary wall around and a broken wooden door on its southern side, facilitated the outlaws to escape unnoticed.All that escapees had to do was to remove an iron-rod of the rear window of the lock-up.
According to reports, the incident of fleeing from the lock-up took place immediately after the first trip of the prisoner''s van with 40 prisoners, out of a total 72, including two women left for the jail. Reports suggest that as some of the police personnel deputed there escorted the van to the jail, leaving behind only a few constables on guard, the miscreants took advantage of the shortage of "vigilant eyes" and made their escape good.
"Earlier also an incident of this kind had happened here when two prisoners had fled. But no step was taken thereafter to raise the height of the boundary wall and repair the broken door," said a constable deputed there. Requesting anonymity, he said, "What can we do when higher-ups are hardly bothered to take lessons from the past experiences?" When contacted, Begusarai superintendent of police Kumar Rajesh Chandra on Thursday dismissed as "nonsense" the reports appearing in a section of the media regarding suspension of some police personnel reportedly "responsible for the criminal lapse". He, however, said that he has instructed the Begusarai SDPO to inquire and submit a report in this regard at the earliest.
The SP further said that he had intimated the PWD executive engineer here in his letter -- dated December 18, 2002, with a copy to the district magistrate -- regarding the need to raise the height of the boundary wall around the lock-up and repairing of its broken door, but to no avail. According to him, the associates of the outlaws might have removed one of the rods of the rear window with some sharp iron-cutting instrument in the night, as it was not easy for them to do so during the day-time, when the lock-up was almost pack to the capacity. "I have again written about the problem, but this time to the DM, to raise the boundary wall height and get the broken door repaired to prevent an easy escape from the lock-up," said the SP.