Six juveniles bend grille to flee Noida home, caught

NOIDA: As many as six juveniles lodged in the Noida observation home managed to escape on Friday night after tying a bedsheet to the grilles of the gate and pulling them together to bend them inwards.
While three of the juveniles were caught within hours from near the observation home in Phase 2, the others were picked up from different places over Saturday and Sunday.
Officials said the juveniles were aged between 15 and 17 years and had been kept in an isolation ward of the observation home because they had been lodged there recently. All of them are accused of offences such as rape and abduction.
Dharmendra Maurya, in-charge of the observation home, said around 3.15am on Friday, the six juveniles — led by a 17-year-old boy accused of abducting a minor girl and attempting to flee with her — planned the escape. They tied the bedsheet to the gate and used it to bend the grilles.
“They then jumped out, took a round of the compound and managed to reach the other gate. Since it was made of fibre, they could break it easily and escape,” he added. There was nobody to stop the six. Caretaker Rajpal and two guards deployed outside the isolation ward were asleep.
However, three of the juveniles were caught soon. They were hiding in a bathroom. “Around 3.20am, police were informed about the six and a team from Phase II police station arrived. The three other juveniles were detained on Saturday night and Sunday,” Maurya said.
Police said the 17-year-old juvenile who had led the others was detained from near the NSEZ metro station on Saturday night, while another accused of rape was picked up from near Bhangel on Sunday afternoon. Sources said the two had tried to run towards their homes in Badalpur and Dadri. The third, who is around 15 and was booked in a loot case, was detained from Shamli on Sunday.
The juveniles were produced before the juvenile justice board (JJB), which remanded them in 14 days’ custody on Sunday. They were brought to the observation home, where they will continue to serve judicial custody. They have now been lodged in a separate room.
Three officials of the home — the two guards and the caretaker — have been booked for negligence.
The juvenile trio, who remained untraceable till Saturday and Sunday, have been booked under sections 223 (escape from confinement or custody negligently suffered by public servant.) and 224 (resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension) of IPC on a complaint by Maurya.
The Noida observation home has as many as 170 juveniles lodged there. Although it has a capacity of only around 100 inmates, it houses juveniles from five districts of western UP — Noida, Ghaziabad, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar and Shamli.
JJB member Aneet Baghel said the juveniles are in the sensitive age group and need counselling, which has become difficult because of the Covid outbreak.