: Former jail superintendent of Nagpur central Jail Vaibhav Kamble has alleged that the escape of five inmates from the high-security prison in the heart of Nagpur on March 31 this year, was an “internal conspiracy” in which many officials from the State Jail Department were involved.
Mr. Kamble was the jail superintendent at the time and was suspended within hours of the jailbreak.
“All the five inmates were released from the jail on the night of March 30. They were taken out of the jail from the main gate. There is no other way to escape from the jail. Even the then Nagpur Commissioner of Police Mr. Pathak, who visited the jail after the incident, had admitted that the inmates could not have escaped by cutting thick wired grills,” Mr. Kamble told The Hindu .
“Senior jail officials hatched a conspiracy to get me removed from service. I don’t have a single allegation against me in my 20 years of service. I am highly educated and have completed my M.Phil. But some officials could not stand my growth because I am a Dalit. I am a victim of casteism in the department,” he claimed.
Mr. Kamble said he had been writing to Ms. Meeran Borwankar , the Additional Director General (ADG) of Police, Maharashtra, Prisons, about the possibility of a jailbreak.
“I wrote three letters to Ms. Borwankar between October 2014 and February 2015 about the lack of manpower in the jail but there was no action. As part of the conspiracy, senior jail officials removed officers from my jail staff. When the jailbreak took place, I was managing the jail with less than half the sanctioned staff strength and many of them were part of the conspiracy.”
The suspended jail superintendent said he was made a “scapegoat.”
“The jail authorities have not taken my statement till today”
