(Photo: IANS)
Agartala, October 2 (IANS) The Tripura government has suspended five officials in connection with the escape of six inmates -- five undertrial prisoners and one serving a life term -- from a jail, officials said on Thursday.
With one more fugitive rearrested by the security forces on Thursday, so far two jailbreakers were apprehended while an intensive search is still underway for the second day on Thursday to nab the remaining four fleeing absconders.
A Jail Department official said that the Inspector General of Prisons has suspended Dhananjoy Bhattacharya, Jailor, and Pallab Kanti Bhowmik, Prashikhan Jamatia, Mohammad Gedu Mia and Notan Lodh, all Warders, in connection with the jailbreak of six inmates from the Dharmanagar Sub-Jail in North Tripura district on Wednesday morning.
Disciplinary proceedings would be taken against all five jail staff, the official said. He said that a massive search is still underway in the suspected places for the second day on Thursday to nab the remaining four fleeing fugitives, as two of the six inmates who escaped from the jail in the early hours of Wednesday have been apprehended.
The official said that Abdul Patta and Narayan Chandra Datta, two of the six inmates who escaped from the Dharmanagar Sub-Jail at Kalikapur in North Tripura district, were apprehended on Wednesday evening and Thursday from the Dharmanagar police station areas.
The official said that six inmates -- five undertrial prisoners and one serving life imprisonment -- escaped from the Dharmanagar Sub-Jail in the early hours of Wednesday after assaulting a guard with sharp weapons.
The incident took place when the jail personnel brought the inmates out of their cell for breakfast and for their daily ablutions. The injured jail staff, Bedu Miah, is currently under treatment at the Dharmanagar District Hospital, and his condition is said to be stable now.
Officials said that immediately after the jailbreak, a massive search operation was launched by various teams of security forces, and the hunt for them is still on.
North Tripura district Superintendent of Police Avinash Kumar Rai also led one of the search teams. All police stations and security posts in North Tripura and adjoining Unakoti districts were alerted.
“We have also requested the Border Security Force (BSF) to maintain a strict vigil along the India-Bangladesh border so that the fleeing jail inmates cannot cross the border,” an official said.
North Tripura district shares inter-state borders with Assam and Mizoram, besides an International Border with Bangladesh.
The official said, “All the exit points along Assam, Mizoram and Bangladesh have been sealed following the incident to prevent the fleeing jail inmates from leaving the state.”
The fleeing undertrial prisoners are Abdul Pata, Rahim Ali, Narayan Chandra Dutta, Rosan Ali, and Nazim Uddin, while Sunil Debbarma, accused of serious crimes, including murder, has been serving life imprisonment.
Narayan Chandra Dutta is a Bangladeshi national who was earlier arrested in Tripura under the Passport and other Acts, while Abdul Pata is a resident of Nilambazar in Assam’s Sribhumi district (previously Karimganj district).
Abdul Pata was earlier arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, for his involvement in illegal drug-related cases.
