Punna Bahadar Shahi, who was serving an eight-year jail term in a rape case, and Bijay Bikram Shah who was remanded on an abduction charge four months ago, escaped from the Surkhet jail by making a hole in the compound wall with a hammer and an iron rod. [break]
“When we did roll call in the morning, every one was there,” a police man, who called the roll of prisoners, said. “The two ran away shortly afterwards through the hole they had already made," the policeman said.
Circumstantial evidences clearly show that the two prisoners fled the jail, taking advantage of lax security. A security check-post is located just 10 meters south of the broken wall. Similarly, another check-post stands just 30 meters away in the east. Policemen Lila Budha and Top Bahadur Basnet were on duty at these two check-posts. However, none of them saw the fleeing prisoners.
Chief District Officer (CDO) of Surkhet Hari Krishna Poudel has also admitted to the negligence of security personnel in the jail-break incident. “Our preliminary investigation has held security personnel´s negligence as the major reason of the jail-break,” CDO Poudel said. “We are investigation if any of security personnel was involved in the incident."
The presence of hammer and iron rod has also raised suspicion about some security person´s involvement in the incident. “The fact that the sentry did not see the fleeing prisoners has already raised our suspicion,” an official who inspected the jail after the incident said. “The use of hammer and rod, which are not allowed into the jail compounds, has added to our suspicion.”
The apathy shown by the District Administration Office of Surkhet towards the demand of the jail administration for setting up a new check-post is also being blamed for the jail-break. “We wanted to build a check-post exactly where the prisoners broke the walls,” a jail official said. “But, our request was not fulfilled by the administration," he said.
Some portion of the compound wall of the jail, which was built about 35 years ago, is fragile. To make the matter worse, the jail, which can accommodate only 25 prisoners, was overcrowded with 105 prisoners. “It was difficult for security persons to keep an eye on all the prisoners,” a jail official said. “The two prisoners took advantage of this very fact.”
According to CDO Poudel, Jailer Prakash Neupane and Assistant Sub Inspector Min Bahadur Shahi, who was duty in-charge when the two prisoners escaped from the jail, have been suspended. Similarly, two different probe panels, one led by Assistant CDO Hari Pyakurel and another by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jay Bahadur Chanda, have been formed to look into the incident.
This is the second jail-break incident in Surkhet in last 10 years. Earlier on January 15 in 2002, during the Maoist insurgency, 30 prisoners, half of whom were Maoist cadres, had escaped from the Surkhet jail.
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