BHUBANESWAR: A day after convicted gangster Sheikh Hyder escaped from SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack during treatment, an embarrassed Odisha Police on Sunday suspended six constables for dereliction of duty.
The development coincided with DGP Abhay reviewing the progress of the search operation for the don with additional director-general (crime branch) Yeshwant Jethwa, commissioner of police Saumendra Priyadarshi and deputy inspector-general (central range) J N Pankaj here.
Multiple teams have fanned across the state to search for Hyder. Help of police of neighbouring West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh has been sought. His photograph has been sent to neighbouring states and airports. “We have some leads,” Jethwa said.
Hyder, who had been serving a life sentence in Sambalpur jail in two separate murder cases, was referred to SCB from Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (Vimsar) in Burla on March 23 to undergo a gallbladder surgery. The Sambalpur Police had assigned a havildar and five constables to guard Hyder at SCB.
On Saturday evening, Hyder was found missing from the hospital’s cabin, leaving police red-faced. The police have come to know that only one of the six constables was present in the cabin and he, too, was semi-conscious. The police strongly suspect Hyder had drugged the constable’s food and fled.
The six cops who have been suspended were identified as Ramesh Chandra Dehury (havildar), constables Bulbul Sahu, Deepak Sahu, Mohammad Mousim, Umakant Behera and Sudhansu Majhi. All are from Sambalpur.