Etawah jail inmate run over by train after escaping with fellow prisoner

A convict at the district jail in Uttar Pradesh’s Etawah was killed on Sunday after being run over by a train that he was trying to board following his escape from the prison along with another inmate, according to the police. The other inmate was absconding, an official said.

Chandra Prakash alias Chandwa (40) of Etawah and Ramanand (45) of Auraiya escaped by cutting iron rods of their barrack and scaling the compound wall with the help of bedsheets on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, director general of UP Prison Administration and Reform Services Anand Kumar said.

Ramanand was run over after he slipped and came under the Sangam Express that he was trying to board at Etawah railway station early on Sunday morning, Kumar added.

The police were searching for Chandwa even as five jail officials were suspended for negligence over the jailbreak.

Jail authorities discovered about Ramanand’s death an hour after his escape when deputy jailor Jagdish Prasad went on a routine inspection, following which a search was launched for the two inmates, jail superintendent Raj Kishor Singh told Press Trust of India. “It was during this [search] that the railway police informed [us] about a person being run down by a train. The person was identified as Ramanand,” Singh said.

Kumar said deputy inspector general (DIG) prison of Kanpur region, BP Tripathi, has been asked to investigate the matter.

He said five jail officials -- head warders Irfan Ahmad and BL Nigam and warders Anand Kumar, Ayush Shukla and Sri Krishna -- have been placed under suspension after DIG Prison suspected negligence on their part during initial investigations. He said the role of a few other officials was also being investigated.

He said Chandwa was serving life term in a dacoity and kidnapping case and a seven-year term in a loot case of 2008. Ramanand was also serving life term in two separate cases of murder, he added.

An FIR has been registered in the matter and a team of prison staffers is carrying out a search operation to arrest Chandwa. The Etawah police has sent the body of Ramanand for post-mortem examination, Kumar said.

The official said the two inmates were lodged in barrack number 5 of the prison and apparently planned the escape together. He said the inmates cut the rod of the barrack using a blade-like object and then used bedsheets to climb the 22-foot-high boundary wall of the jail.

District magistrate Jitendra Bahadur Singh and the senior superintendent of police visited the jail. “Laxity was found on the part of officials on duty from midnight to 4am. How was an iron-cutter sneaked inside the jail?” the district magistrate said.

(With inputs from PTI)