An officer involved in the probe said preliminary investigations showed that the two inmates, who had managed to escape from the jail on Tuesday, had used cell phones to communicate and plan the escape. He also slammed the police for not stopping the inmates from using cell phones. [break]
“We found the inmates managed to take cell phones inside the jail due to lack of proper security check-ups,” the officer revealed. The inmates had escaped by making a hole in the compound wall of the jail. In the second jail break in Surkhet in last 10 years, Purna Bahadur Shahi, a rape convict, and Bijay Bikram Shah, remanded for abduction, had escaped from the Surkhet jail.
The Prison Act 2011 has banned the use of cell phones by inmates. The international law on human rights allows use of communication facilities by the prisoners of conscience but there are no such prisoners in Surkhet jail.
Worker, nine cops detained
The probe committee has detained a worker involved in prison construction for allegedly aiding the inmates in breaking the jail. Nine police personnel, including assistant sub-inspector Min Bahadur Shahi, chief of the security post inside the jail, have also been detained for investigation.
Officials suspect that other prisoners might also have helped the inmates escape from the jail as the hole made in the compound wall was merely 16 inch x 16 inch.
“It is next to impossible to escape through such a narrow hole without others pushing or pulling them (inmates),” an official involved in the investigations said.
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