STF nabs rapist who fled jail

VARANASI: Raju Singh alias Raju Bangali, who had fled the district jail after dodging the prison guards and officials on Saturday, was arrested by the STF on Monday.
Raju had made stamps, used for stamping on the hands of jail visitors on different days at the time of entry and exit, with potatoes inside the jail and used one of them, being used by the jail staff on Saturday, on his hand to dodge the sentry and escape.
The STF said that its Varanasi field unit, led by inspector Amit Srivastava, got clues regarding Raju's presence near UP College gate on Monday morning after which they raided the place and arrested him with a mobile phone.
During interrogation, he divulged that immediately after landing in jail on February 11 he had started planning his escape. The officials said that jail officials keep several stamps and choose one of them randomly for stamping on the hand of visitors for allowing them entry to meet the prisoners. No same stamp is used on the hands of visitors everyday.
As per his plan he started collecting samples of stamps used on the hand of visitors and replicated it on potatoes. Raju revealed that he already had the stamp being used on visitors' hands on Saturday, in his collection. He used such a stamp on his hand and managed to escape by joining the crowd of visitors and showing the stamp to the sentry at jail gate, said officials.
A shrewd thief with six criminal cases in his account, Raju was arrested last month on the charges of raping a minor girl. He was sent to jail on February 7. Earlier also he had tried to escape from police custody when he was taken to produce before the court after his arrest. However, lawyers and other people present in the district court compound caught him and thrashed him. The police took him under custody again and sent to jail in judicial remand.
The jail authorities came to know that Raju had fled from jail only after he raided the rape survivor's house and threatened her mother to withdraw the case on Saturday. After the rape survivor's mother alerted the police they swung into action and contacted the jail authorities.