Kolkata: Three Bangladeshi prisoners escaped from Alipore Central Correctional Home in South Kolkata, allegedly by drugging prison guards and other inmates in their own cell, in the wee hours on Sunday. The matter came to light during routine head counting of prisoners on Sunday morning.
The state Correctional Administration department has ordered a departmental inquiry into the incident and suspended three jail guards for "dereliction of duty".
"I have already ordered departmental enquiry and suspension of three security personnel who were involved in the security of the trio who had escaped and others who were lodged in the same cell. We will not tolerate any kind of callousness regarding the issue of jail security," state Correctional Administration minister Ujjal Biswas said.
Officials from Alipore police station and the detective department of Kolkata Police, along with sniffer dogs, visited the spot soon after the incident to have an idea of the escape route of the three.
Sources in the Correctional Home said that the trio had used tranquilisers in sweets to drug their fellow inmates and some guards who were supposed to look after the security.
"They used the shawls that were offered to them to keep away the cold, to give shape to a rope-like thing. They used a bamboo with a pointed end and fixed it to the wall of the prison and a guava tree adjacent to the wall made their task a bit easier. However, there were watch towers at the location on the side of the Adi Ganga, from where they scaled the wall and fled away," an insider said on conditions of anonymity.
As many as nine shawls in tattered condition along with a bamboo with a pointed end has been recovered by sleuths investigating the case.
The three had used some cutting instrument to break the grill of the prison and the insiders have reasons to believe that they had prior knowledge that security in this part of the home was slack. It may be mentioned that the trio was lodged in ward number 7 of the home.
"The routine counting was done at 12 midnight on Saturday and they were present then. However, during the counting on Sunday morning, they were missing. They have been identified as Faruq Hawladar, Emon Chowdhury and Firod Seikh Rana," an official said.
Firod (29), a resident of Madaripur of Bangladesh, was arrested in 2014 in connection with a robbery case. Faruq (24), a resident of Bagerhat in Bangladesh, was arrested in 2013 under the Arms Act while Chowdhury (25) was arrested in 2014 in connection with a kidnapping case.
Faruq has completed his term in the home but being a Bangladeshi national, paperwork was pending, that resulted in him languishing there. The other two were under trial.