BHARUCH/VADODARA, July 26: In a sensational jail-break, five hardcore convicts escaped from the Bharuch sub-jail on Saturday night by scaling its 16-feet-high wall and another four-feet-high electrified barbed wire fencing. A police alert has flashed details of the prisoners across the State. Though jailor P R Patel could not be contacted, District Superintendent of Police Ashish Bhatia said the convicts -- all of whom were serving sentences in different cases, ranging from house-breaking to murder -- broke the rusted grills of their barrack and scaled the wall with the help of a water pipeline.One of the convicts, an electrician by trade, insulated the electrified barbed wires with a thick quilt, the District Superintendent of Police said, adding that they had all been lodging together because of a space crunch inside the jail.
The jail-break, prison sources said, occurred between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., but the jail authorities came to know of it only at 5 a.m., by which time the convicts may have crossed the district boundaries or even the inter-state border into the neighbouring States.
The desperadoes have been identified as Ramakant alias Sagar Daneshwar Parinda (23), a resident of Ankleshwar; Shukla Kumar Parmnand Patro (20), Mahesh Gordhan Vasava (20), Fatehsinh Sardarsinh Raj (29), all residents of Bharuch; and Arvind Om Prakash Kapoor (23), a Mumbai resident. They had been incarcerated between May 1996 and February 1988.
Fatehsinh Raj was serving out a sentence for murder since May 9, 1996, while Kapoor had been jailed in a highway robbery case. The others were in mostly in theft cases.
Seeking public cooperation, the police have requested people to call up on Bharuch phone numbers (02642) 41600, 41503 or 35750 if they know anything about their whereabouts.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
