Three prisoners planned to climb the wall, one failed when the ladder fell – ThePrint –

Haridwar, Oct 13 (PTI) Two prisoners who escaped from Haridwar district jail had hatched the plan with a third prisoner, who also tried to climb the prison wall with them but failed when his ladder fell, police sources said on Sunday.

The three had planned the prison break about a week before a Ramlila event at the prison, which they took advantage of to escape, they said.

Pankaj, who is serving a life sentence, and Ramkumar Chauhan, who is on trial in a kidnap and ransom case, escaped from jail on Friday evening. Six prison officials, including jailer Pyarelal, were suspended for negligence after the case came to light.

Haridwar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pramendra Doval formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which will be led by Additional Superintendent of Police (Sadar) Jitendra Mehra, on Friday evening to re-arrest the inmates at the earliest.

The police sources said preliminary investigation revealed that Pankaj and Ramkumar were planning to escape with another inmate, Chhotu. The three planned the prison break about a week before Ramlila’s performance.

Taking advantage of the fact that the prison staff was busy preparing for the Ramlila performance, the three tied two ladders together using a piece of cloth and placed them next to the wall. Pankaj and Rajkumar managed to scale the wall successfully. But when Chottu started climbing the ladder, it fell and he could not escape, the sources said.

Ten teams have been deployed to nab Pankaj and Rajkumar. The teams have not yet found any clues about their whereabouts, police said. PTI DPT DIV DIV

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