Five convicts escape from Buxar central jail

Kumar Rajiv Nayan

Buxar : Five hardcore criminals, all convicts, escaped from Buxar Central Jail around midnight on December 30, 2016. The jail authorities came to know about the incident in the wee hour on December 31.  Immediately, high officials of the district were informed about the incident. DM Raman Kumar, SP Upendra Prasad Sharma, SDO, DSP rushed to Central Jail. A high alert has been sounded and all the borders have been sealed. Even the neighbouring Utter Pradesh has been put on alert. Three warders of the Buxar Central Jail have been suspended for dereliction of duty. The IG ( prisons) has constituted a team to inquire into the incident.

The inmates, who escaped from the jail, are: Sonu Pandey of Ara, Upendra Sah of Chhapra, Devdhari Rai of Chhapra, Pradeep Singh of Motihari and Sonu Singh of Brahmpur in Buxar. Pradeep Singh of Motihari was awarded capital punishment while the rest four were undergoing rigorous life imprisonment.

Buxar SDO and DSP along with heavy police force had visited the Buxar Central Jail two days ago for surprise inspection and found everything right but just two days later, escape of five convicts puts a big question mark on the jail security. SP Upendra Prasad Sharma said that all the five convicts were admitted to the Medical Ward of the jail after they  feigned illness. Around0 midnight, all the five inmates broke the already worn out window of the lavatory of the Medical Ward and escaped through it by jumping the boundarywall of the jail. On December 31 at  about 3 am, a constable on duty found that all the five inmates, who were admitted in the medical ward, were issing. He immediately raised an alarm. The jail administration came into action and informed the officials immediately. The SP said that the DIG (prisons) had left for Buxar.

This is not the first case of escape of inmates from the Buxar Central Jail. Earlier, two hardcore criminals:: Santosh Paswan of Mahdah village under Buxar Muffassil police station and Raju Ram of Rasulpur village under Rajpur police station in Buxar district had escaped from the Buxar Central Jail on December 18, 2011. Raju Ram was arrested within a week but Santosh Paswan was arrested from Akbarpur village under Rajpur police station after two years.