The investigators, who will begin questioning the accused from Wednesday, suspect that either there was not enough patrolling or the jail staff had become “too friendly” with the undertrial prisoners, sources said.
Fourteen of the 66 alleged members of Indian Mujahideen and SIMI, in the jail for their role in the 2008 serial blasts that killed 56 people in Ahmedabad, were booked for the jailbreak attempt after it was found they had dug a tunnel that was nearly six feet deep and over 18 feet long.
A top crime branch official said the tunnel dug so far was about 150 feet away from the main compound wall of the jail on the rear side where Chandrabhaga river, which is now a sewer, once flowed.
“They would have had to break the wall of their barrack whose foundation is 10 feet deep and then the main wall of the jail to escape, or they could have crawled out from the drainage line to this sewer,” said an officer.