Jaipur: In a jailbreak straight out of a thriller, two inmates of Jaipur Central Jail scaled an over 20-feet-high boundary wall topped with live electric fence to escape in early hours of Saturday. They disappeared into the darkness, exposing glaring security lapses in one of Rajasthan’s most fortified prisons. By evening, one of them was nabbed within the city limits, while seven jail warders, the deputy jailor, and three RAC constables were suspended.The two inmates were identified as Anas, alias Danish Khan, a native of Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, who sold fruits and vegetables in Jaipur’s Pratap Nagar, and Naval Kishore Mahavar, a labourer from Karauli employed in a bangle factory. Both were arrested in theft cases by the city police—Anas jailed on Sept 15, Mahavar on Sept 17—and placed inside Barrack 3 of Ward 13.Investigators said that around 2.10am, the duo prised open one of the three four-inch ventilation grills of the washroom, creating an eight-inch gap through which they wriggled out into the compound. For nearly an hour, they darted from one corner of the jail to another, testing escape routes. At one end of the jail , they tried to scale the wall by hurling a cloth—possibly a blanket—over the electric fence. The fabric caught fire.They then shifted towards another section, climbing onto the terrace of a small building near the outer wall, with the help of an empty chair near the jail Rang-Manch (theatre). There, they found a garden pipe and a stick. Using the stick, they smashed a CCTV camera, then wedged apart the electrified wires. An official said one inmate mounted the other’s shoulders to secure the pipe over the wall.The pipe became their rope: they swung it across the high boundary and slid down, despite six CCTV cameras covering the stretch. Footage recovered later showed them scaling the wall at 3.30am. Yet, their absence went unnoticed until the 6.30am roll call. Lal Kothi police station was informed and a search launched. Khan was arrested from Malpura Gate area in the evening. A “regular visitor” to Jaipur jail, Khan was imprisoned five times earlier here.Officials said both inmates were thin, consumed smack regularly, and used their wiry frames to squeeze through narrow gaps.What has deepened the embarrassment is that the duo fled right under the gaze of a 360-degree CCTV mounted on the boundary wall, in addition to three other cameras around the main gate.ADG (Jail) Rupinder Singh issued an order to suspend seven jail warders. Later in the evening, deputy jailor Ram Charan Meena was also suspended.
