In yet another jailbreak within two months, a murder convict serving a life sentence managed to flee from the Nagpur central prison on Monday.
According to sources, Purshottam Bhoyar, a resident of Bodhli in Gadchiroli, was brought out of the prison with six others to clean the office of deputy inspector general (DIG) of prison Swati Sathe on Monday morning. After an hour, the jail authorities realised that Bhoyar had fled.
The jail authorities alerted the city police, who then launched a search for Bhoyar. A complaint was also lodged with the Dhantoli police. The city police control room, rural police, railway police and the police stations of Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Wardha, Bhandra, Amravati, Yavatmal and other neighbouring districts were alerted about the jailbreak.
Nagpur rural additional police commissioner Shrikant Tarwade and additional police commissioner Deepak Pande then held a meeting with police officers from all four zones, crime branch, police headquarters and special crime branch to decide the course of action to catch Bhoyar.
The Nagpur jail authorities had received flak from all quarters when five criminals, including those facing stringent MCOCA charges, escaped from the jail on March 31. It had led to a surprise visit by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis a couple of months ago. The state had also suspended then jail superintendent Vaibhav Kamble and shunted out then DIG (prisons) Shashikant Shinde.