The local police are baffled by Tihar Jail authorities’ delay in informing the police about the escape of two undertrials from its premises. Help from police was sought almost 24 hours after jail officials first learnt of the escape.
That delay, sources in the Delhi police said, gave Javed ample time to escape to any place of his choice. It is suspected that the jail authorities were trying to suppress the issue in the hope that Javed would be found in the jail premises itself and the incident would remain confined to the four walls of the prison.
Tihar Jail’s DIG Mukesh Prasad said the delay was because “it took time to search the entire campus”. “We had to search every unit of the prison. We looked into every water tank and each bathroom in the jail’s premises before approaching police,” said Prasad.
He further said that the Delhi prison rules stipulate that the jail’s premises be searched by its own security agencies and not the police. “Once we were certain that Javed was not inside, we sought police help to search outside,” he said.
For the record, the jailbreak came to light on Saturday night itself. Police were informed on Sunday night and the FIR in the case was registered later at 11 pm.
The sequence of events narrated by Pushpendra Kumar, DCP (West), indicated that there was delay in beginning the search when the jailbreak came to prison staff’s notice.
“Prison officials discovered the hole in the wall of jail number 8 and immediately conducted a headcount in that prison. When they found all inmates of that prison present, they initially heaved a sigh of relief believing it was a failed attempt of escape,” said Kumar. He added that jail staff realised that two were missing only sometime later when they conducted headcounts in all other prisons.
Sources also revealed that the prison staff initially tried to hush up the discovery of the broken wall for a brief period in the hope that it was a failed attempt. “Then they decided not to take a chance and conducted headcounts in all the jails,” said the police source.
Police are surprised at how the two prisoners were aware of the layout of the prison. Though senior officers said it was not very likely, they are not ruling out the possibility of assistance from insiders. Laxity on the part of the watch staff and security personnel deployed on towers is being probed among other things, said police.
