Kolkata: Three Bangladeshis escape jail after feeding guards sweets laced with sedatives

Three undertrial prisoners escaped by scaling the walls of Alipore Central Correctional Home in Kolkata on Sunday. The three Bangladeshi nationals were found missing during the routine roll call on Sunday morning.

Jail officials said that the three tranquillised prison guards with sweets laced with sedatives. “They had cut the prison rod with hacksaw blades. Water pipes and branches of trees were used to climb up the wall of the prison and used three bedsheets and shawls which were gifted to them by an NGO on December 25 to climb down the wall. Five jail guards have been suspended,” said a senior jail official.

The trio who escaped are Farooque Hawladar (24), Iman Chowdhury (25) and Firdaus Sk (29). Hawladar was arrested in 2013 under the arms act, Chowdhury was arrested in 2014 in a kidnapping case and Firdaus was arrested in 2014 on charges of robbery.

Jail sources said that the three had been kept at Ward No 7, the oldest and biggest ward of the jail, which houses 80 prisoners. Officials also said that at the routine roll call on midnight on Saturday they were all present. “They had planned the escape for sometime,” the official said.

According to the norms, prisoners can accept Rs 500 from family members every month. They had used the money to buy sweets from the jail canteen, laced those with sedatives and fed co-inmates as well as guards.

The incident has put a question mark on the security arrangement of the correctional home. Authorities are looking into CCTV footages but some of the CCTVs are reportedly defunct. Police stations, especially of the bordering areas have been alerted. Police apprehend that they would attempt to escape to Bangladesh. State Correctional Services minister Ujjal Biswas said that it proves there were several lapses in the security arrangement. “I have ordered a departmental inquiry and offenders will get strict punishment. No negligence on the issue of security will be tolerated,” he said.