Haryana: Thirteen undertrials flee Rewari Covid facility

CHANDIGARH: Thirteen undertrials, including six facing murder charges, escaped from a jail at Phideri village in Haryana’s Rewari district on Saturday night. The prisoners, who were among the 265 Covid positive inmates shifted from Narnaul last week, cut an iron grill of the barrack and used cloth from their bedding as a rope to escape.
The jail has been converted into a dedicated facility for Covid-19 positive inmates and has 450 undertrials — all virus-infected. Others who escaped include six who are facing attempt to murder charges and one was booked under the Pocso Act.
Preliminary probe suggest lapses on part of jail staff: SP
Four of them were facing trial in Rewari and nine in Mahendragarh.
Rewari SP Abhishek Jorwal said, “Preliminary investigations hint at lapses, especially on the part of jail staff deployed around the barrack. All those who escaped were lodged in one barrack. Statements of other undertrials who were in the same barrack are being recorded.”
Jorwal said a case has been registered in the incident and negligence on part of the jail officials is being investigated. Crime teams, locals cops, and jail security staff have started combing operations in nearby villages, and pictures of those who escaped have been circulated. The jail authorities in Panchkulatoo have deployed a team headed by an IGP-level officer to probe into the jailbreak.
Officials said a staff of around 40 jail warders and guards was deployed in the makeshift premises at an eight-acre under-construction high security jail.