BHUBANESWAR: Dreaded convict Sheikh Hyder, who had escaped from the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Odisha's Cuttack during treatment on April 10, has been recaptured by the commissionerate police in Telangana on Thursday.
Hyder was intercepted by the police in Sangareddy district while he was moving in a bike in the evening.
“The joint team of our commissionerate police and the Telangana police waylaid Hyder, who was on a bike. Our officers immediately identified him and rounded him on the road itself. He is being brought back to Odisha,” commissioner of police Saumendra Priyadarshi said.
It was a prestige issue for the state police as Hyder’s escape had left the government embarrassed with the opposition BJP and Congress mounting scathing attacks on the police and blaming some senior officers for helping the gangster flee from the hospital.
Sources said the police got vital clues about Hyder from his close aide Sallu alias Yakub Khan, who had surrendered before the Cuttack police on April 12.
Police said Khan had played a key role in Hyder’s escape and reportedly drugged the food of a constable, who was on duty at the gangster’s cabin in the hospital on April 10.
The police had taken Khan on 7-day remand on Wednesday.
“We have learnt that Hyder escaped to Hyderabad in a car. He was constantly on the move and changing his locations. Our personnel worked on some credible intelligence input and immediately left for Hyderabad two days ago,” Priyadarshi said.
Police said those, who conspired with Hyder, helped him escape and gave him shelter, would be taken to task. “We will interrogate Hyder once he reaches Odisha. Nobody would be spared in the conspiracy of helping him escape,” Priyadarshi said. Earlier on April 11, the police had suspended six constables for dereliction of duty.
Hyder, who had been lodged in Sambalpur jail after being convicted in two murder cases, was referred to the SCB medical by the VIMSAR in Burla on March 23. Role of the authorities of the SCB medical college and hospital had come under the scanner for immediately allotting a cabin to Hyder and allegedly switching off the CCTV cameras of the surgery ward on the day of his escape.