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HT This Day: March 17, 1986 -- Shobraj breaks jail with six inmates
Internationally wanted conman Charles Shobraj and six other notorious inmates escaped from the “high security” Tihar jail this afternoon after drugging the jail officials with the help of two outside accomplices and getting away in a car that was brought within the jail compound
Internationally wanted conman Charles Shobraj and six other notorious inmates escaped from the “high security” Tihar jail this afternoon after drugging the jail officials with the help of two outside accomplices and getting away in a car that was brought within the jail compound.
In an operation lasting barely 20 minutes and which showed all indications of thorough planning, the prisoners made the jail staff cat sweets, grapes and fruit cream - all drugged - to celebrate one of theirs “birthday” and tied them with medical gauze-tape before making the break.
Seven jail officials who were yet to regain consciousness at the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital by late this evening, were placed under arrest and their services suspended for “dereliction of duty” by Lt-Governor H. L. Kapur. An inquiry has also been ordered into the episode.
Among the six others who escaped, Laxmi Narain and Brij Mohan were under trials lodged in the jail on charges of murder and dacoity. The other four were Ajai Kumar, Bhola, Dinesh and Bajrang, the first two being undertrials on charges of murder and the latter undergoing terms of one year and four months respectively for theft.
It was at about 2.40 p.m. that two men came to Gate No. 3 of Tihar jail through the unmanned outer gate. . Sunday is a day when no visitors are allowed and the jail inmates are given freedom of movement to wash up, exercise and clean their cells.
For reasons known only to the jail staff, however, the two men who came in an off-white Ambassador car, were allowed in through Gate No. 3 of the jail that houses “high risk” prisoners like Satwant Singh, R. S. Sethia, Coomar Narain, Ram Swarup and Larkin brothers.
The car was parked a little distance away from Gate No. 3 and two men carried a basket full of grapes, “pethas” and fruit cream. The entire load was taken to Assistant Superintendent S. R. Yadav, who was the duty officer sitting in one of the rooms in the rabbit-warren structure, and with whom Charles Shobraj “happened” to be sitting.
While the two outsiders invited the warders, sentries and the two helpers to join the party, Shobraj went into his ward and catted his warder, Prem Bahadur, and six other “friendis come to the office section.
With much backslapping and bonhomie, the grapes were eaten, the pethas distributed and the fruit cream cleaned up with Shobraj and his friends joining in. (Police later surmised that what they ate might have borne specific indications of non-contamination.)
Two convicts serving life sentence, who were deployed as helpers in the front area and an undertrial, Mohd. Atiq, were also given the eatables. Within minutes, however, the seven staffers, two convicts and the undertrial felt giddy and rapidly started losing consciousness in quick succession.
The rest of the operation was marked by precision and premeditation that is normally seen only in Western movies. The escapees tied the prone figures on the floor with wire gauze and dragged four of them into different office rooms, bolting the doors from outside.
They also locked the inside jail gate to prevent anyone from making an accidental entry and giving the game away. Even the peep hole was blocked to enable the operation to be carried out in absolute secrecy.
The identity of the two outside accomplices was a mystery till late tonight and the last entrant on the jail logbook was Chandan Singh, a pharmacist who had come to meet the mentally deranged patients. No entry about the two mysterious men had been made in the log book.
With the jail staff drugged, tied and taken out of the way and the inside gates closed, the seven jail birds opened Gate No. 3 with the keys picked from the munshi’s pocket and whizzed in the car past the unsuspecting watchtower guards. The guards later testified that they saw the car going out at about 3 p.m.
Police speculated that there might have been another car parked a little distance away because nine people packed into a car travelling at high speed, might have aroused suspicion. Police said that the nearest point to cross the Delhi border was just 10 minutes away into Haryana and the State police were later alerted about them.
Meanwhile, at the jail life was showing faint indications of returning to a little order. The undertrial, Mohd. Atiq of Jama Masjid was the first to regain consciousness, because he did not get much of the drugged eatables.
Atiq ran to “munshi” Anand Prakash, who was lying tied up in an office room, and gave him the dreadful news and untied him. Anand Prakash, still feeling giddy, staggered to the house of Deputy Superintendent V. D. Pushkarna within the jail premises and alerted him about the jail break.
Pushkarna, who is incharge of ward No. 3, informed the police control room and also sounded a general alarm in the jail summoning staff from all around. By this time, however, the escapees had a good 25 minutes to effect their get-away and till late evening there was no news about their whereabouts despite a city-wide dragnet.
Police at night announced that all the city borders had been scaled and all the known hideouts of Brij Mohan, who seems to have been responsible for making the arrangements after getting out of the jail, were under observation. The city guest houses were also being checked for the seven criminals.
The seven jail staff placed under suspension were identified as Assistant Superintendent Yaday, Jumman Singh gate keeper, Anand Prakash, warden, Ram Chander (sentry), Sulaiman and SeIvan, constables of the Tamil Nadu special police and Prem Bahadur warden.
