Haridwar prison break: 3 planned to scale wall, 1 failed as ladder fell

Two prisoners who escaped from Haridwar district jail had hatched the plan with a third inmate, who also tried to scale the prison wall with them but failed as his ladder fell, police sources said on Sunday.

The three had planned the prison break about a week before a Ramlila event in jail which they took advantage of to escape, they said.

Police, however, are yet to find any leads on the whereabouts of the two prisoners who managed to escape.

Pankaj, who is serving life imprisonment, and Ramkumar Chauhan, an undertrial in a kidnapping and ransom case, escaped from the prison on Friday night. Six jail officials, including jailer Pyarelal, were suspended for negligence after the matter came to light.

Haridwar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pramendra Doval formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which will be led by Additional Superintendent of Police (Sadar) Jitendra Mehra, on Friday night to re-arrest the prisoners as soon as possible.

The police sources said preliminary investigation revealed that Pankaj and Ramkumar had planned to escape with another inmate, Chhotu. The three planned the prison break about a week before the Ramlila performance.

Taking advantage of the fact that the prison staff was preoccupied with preparations for the Ramlila performance, the three tied two ladders together using a piece of cloth and put it next to the wall. Pankaj and Rajkumar managed to successfully scale the wall. But when Chottu started climbing the ladder, it fell and he failed to escape, the sources said.

Ten teams have been deployed to nab Pankaj and Rajkumar. The teams are yet to find any clues about their whereabouts, police said.