A 38-year-old convicted prisoner escaped from Vellore Central Prison on Wednesday afternoon. Teams have been formed nab the prisoner. C. Ramesh, 38, a resident of Arunagiri village in Kalasapakkam taluk of Tiruvannamalai district, was arrested in connection with a kidnapping and murder case in 2010. He was convicted of the offence in 2017 and lodged at the prison. He was found missing from the prison during the roll call at around 1 p.m.
Sources with Vellore district police said that he was among the 18 convicted prisoners sent out for gardening work on the Ariyur road.
He managed to give a slip to the security personnel in the garden area. The issue came to light when the prisoners were called for lunch.
A prison official said they conducted an inquiry soon after the incident with the warden and alerted the police. The official said that teams comprising police and prison personnel have been formed to search for him.
In an earlier incident, a 42-year-old remand prisoner P. Sahadevan escaped from the Vellore prison on December 13, 2017. He was found missing from the prison during the roll call at around 6 a.m. and it was said that he had scaled the compound wall of the prison and escaped.