The escape went unnoticed until Thursday, when an inspection revealed that only five prisoners had returned. An FIR was also registered against nine people, including the absconding undertrial. Meerut: Eight policemen were suspended on Saturday for negligence after an undertrial escaped from Bareilly district court on Wednesday, despite the police general diary (GD) recording that all six prisoners brought for hearings had returned to the lockup.
Around 1.45pm, while the prisoners were being taken for the hearing, Thakur slipped away unnoticed. On June 22, life convict Dinesh fled while working at Bareilly Central Jail’s farm and was later recaptured after an encounter. Thakur’s absence therefore went unnoticed.
This was the third reported escape from custody in Bareilly in six months.
CO Ashutosh Shivam said four teams from the surveillance, SOG, Kotwali and Subhashnagar police units were conducting raids at possible hideouts to trace Thakur. “Police are examining all aspects of the lapse,” Kotwali SHO Rajeev Kumar said. Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Anurag Arya ordered the suspensions following the lapse. He was accused in a theft case registered at Qila police station. As it was a remand hearing, the prisoners remained in the court lockup while their lawyers completed the formalities. Following Kumar’s complaint, Kotwali police registered an FIR against nine people, including seven constables, an unidentified cop and Thakur. In another incident, a woman prisoner escaped from police custody at the district hospital wearing a burqa and was arrested about two months later, in Oct.
The undertrial, Sachin Singh Thakur, a resident of Bareilly’s Subhashnagar area, was brought from the district jail on Wednesday for a hearing in an additional district and sessions judge’s court. The escape came to light on Thursday when court post in-charge SI Saroj Kumar inspected the lockup and found that only five of the six prisoners had returned.