Eleven inmates escaped from the State-run Institute of Mental Health (IMH), Erragadda in the wee hours of Tuesday from the institute’s male criminal ward.
Of the 11 inmates, the police managed to catch eight of them at different places in the twin cities while undertrial prisoner Fahiuddin Qureshi and two other convicts Tirumalesh and Daravath Jeevaratnam are still absconding, DCP (West) V. Satyanarayana said.
Qureshi had been behaving aggressively and shouting at the officials since Monday evening after they had denied permission to his second wife to meet him during ‘mulaqat’.
She had come to the institute to meet him on the occasion of their marriage anniversary.
An angry Qureshi and his friends closed the door using a cable in the evening and burnt the case-sheets.
The inmates panicked as smoke engulfed the congested ward.
While police and institute officials were trying to shift the inmates to another ward, Qureshi made a hole in the wall near the door using an oxygen cylinder and escaped with other inmates.
While eight of them were caught at Balkampet, Santoshnagar and other areas, Qureshi, Tirumalesh and Jeevaratnam stole civilian clothes hung to a wire for drying up in the institute and wore them before escaping.
Difficult situation
“It was a difficult situation last night. Panic-stricken inmates were shouting for help as smoke engulfed the ward. One person was threatening us with a scissor while another was attempting to beat us and on the other side, Qureshi was digging a hole. As rescuing the inmates was our priority, we carefully shifted over 50 inmates to a safe place and later managed to nab eight of them,” a police official said.
Qureshi of Nampally was an undertrial prisoner of Chanchalguda prison, while Tirumalesh of Chittoor and Jeevaratnam of Khammam came from Kadapa and Warangal district jails, respectively. The DCP said a manhunt was on to trace the three absconding prisoners.
Authorities in the hospital said that many in the male criminal wards were getting treated for Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD).
“Such patients sometimes become extremely violent and it’s difficult for the hospital staff to manage them. In fact, just two days ago, we had requested the police for additional protection at the criminal ward. The escaped convicts could be dangerous for the general public because of their violent behaviour,” hospital doctors said.
