Departmental action initiated against 4 jail personnel

GANGTOK, 16 Jan: Departmental action has been initiated against 4 Sikkim Jail police personnel on the escape of 6 convicts from the State Jail at Rongyek on 11 January. The four personnel include an officer who is the sub-jailer and of SI rank while the other 3 are head warders (Havaldars) at the jail. All 4 were issued show cause notices by the Jail Authority routed through the Home Department on 15 January and are required to respond within 7 days.
It is informed that action is more than likely against the 4 personnel who were on duty at the time when the jail break occurred. However, as per procedure, a show cause is issued first. The show cause requires them to explain the negligence on their part which resulted in the escaping of 6 murder convicts in broad daylight; it also requires them to explain why departmental enquiry or action should not be initiated against them in this regard.
It is informed that the sub jailer was the Duty Officer on the day of the escape, while the escapees were in the charge and supervision of the other 3 warders.
The departmental action has been initiated as per the Prison Manual, which interestingly, was only published last year by the State government. As per the prison manual, the accountability for such incidents as a jail break rests on the Duty Officer at that particular time and those who are on security detail.
Last week, a detailed report on the jail break had been submitted to the Home Department by the jail authorities as the state prison is under the charge of the Home Department. This report was examined by the Home Department and it is likely that there will be an enquiry into the causes and lapses which led to the escape of the 6 inmates from the state jail.
The 6 had escaped at around 1 pm on 11 January while they were on their way to Tea Break after having spent time at the workshop as part of their vocational training. Of the 6, three were apprehended that night itself and another 2 the next day. One of them, Rudra Thapa, is still at large.

Quick action by cops ropes in 5 of 6 jailbreak fugitives

ONLY RUDRA THAPA STILL AT LARGE

GANGTOK, 12 Jan: Swift and coordinated action by Sikkim Police has resulted in 5 of the 6 convicts who escaped from the State Jail here yesterday being nabbed. The fugitives began to be nabbed from last night itself and the fifth was brought back into custody at around 5:45 this evening.
Various branches of the Sikkim Police, including the armed police, the IRBn, Home Guards along with the personnel from the Sadar, Pakyong and Ranipool police stations were deployed throughout the night and their efforts have ensured that the cops have been able to pull back some pride. While 3 of the fugitive jailbirds were nabbed last night itself from the Ranipool area, one more was apprehended this morning from Pakyong, and the fifth was nabbed this evening from Lower Syari near Gangtok.
The three picked up from Saramsa near Ranipool last night are Yogesh Karki, 25, of Soreong, West Sikkim; Prashant Sarkar, 25, of Jalpaiguri and Puran Rai, 22, of Munsong, Darjeeling. They were picked up in combined efforts of the various branches of the police late at night on 10 January and immediately taken to the Ranipool police station for interrogation to ascertain the whereabouts of the others.
It is informed that the three did not put up much of a fight and that they were very tired when the police came upon them and swiftly grabbed the three near Saramsa.
This morning, the police picked up Shekhar Roy, 40, of Jalpaiguri, from the Changey Senti forest area under Pakyong police jurisdiction. He had reportedly trekked through the night down from Rongyek, through the Bhusuk forests into Changey Senti aiming to make it to the Bhutan border. The police had spread out in combing operations throughout the night in search of the escapees.
Laxman Mahaley of Jaigon was discovered in the forests of Lower Syari this evening at around 5:45. He is believed to have suffered a leg injury and was reportedly left behind somewhere in the Bhusuk forests by the rest.
With this fifth arrest, the only fugitive still a large is Rudra Thapa of Nepal who was serving time for a murder in Jorethang.
It is learnt that when Laxuman Mahaley could not keep up with the rest, they left him behind and then Rudra Thapa is informed to have broken away from the rest, deciding to make his way alone.
 The police have charged all six with jail breaking under section 224 of the IPC. The five already in custody were lodged at the Sadar thana till late evening today and have since been sent back to the State Jail.
All 6, it may be recalled, were in the state jail on different charges of murder and were serving life terms. Their escape took place between 1 to 2 pm on Wednesday when they scaled the 20 foot jail walls with the help of a makeshift ladder and other materials including pliers acquired from the prison workshop.

Report on jailbreak submitted to Home Dept
GANGTOK, 12 Jan: A detailed report of the jail-break incident has been submitted to the Home Department by the Sikkim State Jail authorities. The state and district prisons come under the charge of the Home Department. The Department will examine the report, and on the basis of this make take further action. It is possible that an enquiry will be instituted to look into the causes and lapses which led to the escape of 6 murder convicts from the State Jail at Rongyek. There are already whispers of some personnel likely to be suspended, however, it has been confirmed that so far no such action has been initiated.

6 murder convicts break out of Rongyek jail

GANGTOK, 11 Jan: Six convicts serving life sentences for different cases of murders in the State escaped from the State prison at Rongyek here today. The daring escape took place in broad daylight between 1 to 2 pm this afternoon and in all likelihood it was a pre-planned operation.
The 6 convicts scaled the 20 foot jail walls and fled into the wilderness outside. One the convicts who escaped is Puran Rai; this is his second jailbreak. He had escaped in the year 2004 with Rakesh Rai, aka ‘Spiderman’, only to be re-arrested. He was a co-accused in the Sikkim Hotel [PS Road, Gangtok] double murder case of November 2003.
The 6 escaped inmates are: Puran Rai, who originally hails from Darjeeling; Rudra Thapa, a Nepal national arrested by the Jorethang police in the year 2004; Yogesh Karki of Soreong and arrested there in 2003; Shekhar Roy of Hidayat Nagar, Jalpaiguri and arrested in the year 2006 by Sadar police; Laxuman Maley of Chama Tea Estate, Jaigoan and arrested in the year 2005 by Singtam police and Prasanta Sarkar of Raiganj, West Bengal and arrested in the year 2003 by Namchi police.
In a move to apprehend the jailbirds, two platoons of Sikkim Armed Police have been deployed along with 1 platoon of the Home Guards.
ASP Jails, Sonam Bhutia, informed that the police personnel are engaged in combing operations even as all the police Check-Posts, especially those at Rongli and Rangpo, alerted on the incident and kept on high alert. In addition, police stations all across the state and also in Kalimpong, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri have also been alerted.
The Commandant, SAP, in coordination with the Jail police, Home Guards and other police personnel are engaged in the combing operations on the Assam Lingzey areas adjoining the Rongyek jail. While the SAP are engaged in the operations from Rongyek downwards, the Home Guards are engaged in similar operations from the Bhusuk khola upwards towards Rongyek.
The police believe that the escapees had hatched the plan much in advance.
Convicts serving life terms in the jail are given vocational work within the campus to keep them engaged and these include such works as dairy farming, agriculture, bakery, carpentry etc. All six were engaged in vocational work today, and at 1 pm, as usual, they break for tea. The 8 to 10 feet corridor between their vocational cell and the kitchen is always unguarded and it was during this tea break that the 6 made their way to the playground slightly higher up.
There were no games scheduled for today so there was no security at the ground either, it is learnt.  Here, they managed to take out the football goal posts which they tied together with ropes to make a ladder with the help of pieces of wood and other material they had procured from their workshop. This was hitched to the jail wall and the barbed wiring on the top of the walls was cut with pliers. The various tools they used were taken from their vocational work cell where the inmates are provided with various tools for their works.
After scaling the wall, they jumped down the other side where the ground is uneven thus making the leap manageable. It was only at the end of the tea break at 2 pm that one of the guards on duty noticed that a ladder had been hitched to the wall and alerted other personnel.
The State jail has its own personnel called wardens who are the supervisors inside the jail complex while the jail boundary is manned by SAP personnel. The transportation of under trials to and from the courts is the responsibility of Reserve Lines, Sikkim Police.
Immediately after the escape was noticed, all wardens, including those who were off-duty, were called in, the police headquarters informed and all police stations and check posts alerted. Photos of the escaped inmates have also been circulated widely. The police believe that the escapees have made their way down Bhusuk khola and will move in that direction generally but will not move about at night when it will be too cold.