Five inmates escape Yerawada temporary jail in Pune

PUNE: In a third incident of its kind over the last one month, five inmates escaped from a temporary jail set up at a girl’s hostel facility in Yerawada by bending the window grill of their first-floor room during the wee hours of Thursday.
Three of these inmates were arrested by Daund police in rural Pune under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) while one each were arrested by Lonikand police in rural Pune, and Wakad police under the Pimpri Chinchwad police jurisdiction.
Barely two days ago, an inmate had escaped from the same temporary jail. The police though, traced and arrested him the same evening from Shirur.
Apart from the three incidents, an attempt to escape was foiled by the security guards on a previous occasion.
Inspector Ajay Waghmare of the Yerawada police told TOI “The five inmates were lodged in room numbers 4 and 5 on the first floor of the temporary jail. All of them came together and pulled the window grills with a force. The grills came out and they jumped from the windows.”
Police identified the MCOCA suspects as Devgan Ajinath Chavan, Ganesh Ajinath Chavan and Ganesh Ajinath Chavan, all residents of Daund. They were moved to the temporary jail only two days back.
Police identified the other two inmates as Ajinkya Uttam Kamble of Sahakarnagar and Sunny Tayran Pinto of Wakad. Kamble was arrested by the Loni Kalbhor police in an extortion and threat case while Pingo was arrested by the Wakad police in a theft case.
As a measure to avoid the spread of Covid-19 virus in jails, the prison administration has acquired hostel buildings and other facilities near the jails across the state and have designated them as temporary jails for lodging newly arrested suspects who are referred to judicial custody remand by the courts.
The idea is to keep these suspects at the temporary facilities for 14 days and, thereafter, take them inside the main prison facility following a medical examination.
In Pune, the Yerawada jail administration has acquired three such facilities, including a girl’s hostel building, a research and training institute facility and a marriage hall for temporary lodging prisoners.