The escape is the second such incident within a period of ten days. Two women prisoners, both foreign nationals, had made a daring escape from the Yerawada Central Jail on December 17. Three prisoners escaped from the open jail during the current year.

The open jail at Tingarenagar near Lohegaon, houses prisoners who have completed a major period of their prison term. The prisoners are engaged in farming activities. The security at the open jail is also relaxed.

The prisoners Ashok Aba Gade (28), and Ashok Shivaji Mali (42) escaped between 6 and 7 am (it was still dark), when they had been allowed to go outside to answer nature's call. The escape came to light only during the morning roll call by jail authorities. There are 145 prisoners in the jail, including the two escapees.

Gade, a resident of Haregaon in Shrirampur tehsil, had already completed eight years ofhis term. Mali, a resident of Dongaon in Vaijaypur tehsil of Aurangabad district, had completed nine years of his life imprisonment. Both the escapees were brought from Aurangabad.

Incidents of prisoners managing to escape from Yerawada prison have increased over the past few months. In August, fifteen prisoners managed to escape in a plan that could have taken place in a thriller. The prisoners who were being taken in a van from the sessions court to the prison, created a major commotion by setting a cloth on fire and managed to flee when the van stopped at the Mula Road. Only four prisoners could be nabbed by police later.

On December 17, the two foreign nationals, Tanja David Zhurechar (22) of Switzerland and Judith Wangui Kamau (25), who were arrested for drug-peddling, cut the iron grills of the ventilator, and later scaled the boundary wall by using wooden sleepers which had been kept for construction work in a small room nearby. The escapees are still to be traced.