Three jail officials, including the chief head warder of Central Jail in Buxar, were suspended for dereliction of duty after five convicts escaped from the jail early on Saturday.
The state prison directorate has formed a two-member team comprising director, administration-cum-joint secretary Rajiv Kumar Verma and deputy inspector-general (jail) Shivendra Priyadarshi to investigate the incident. The team will submit its report within 24 hours.
Those suspended are chief head warder Kameshwar Paswan and warders Upendra Das and Raj Kumar Ram, both posted at the Buxar Central Jail. Inspector-general (prisons) Anand Kishor confirmed disciplinary action against the erring jail officials.
The incident came to light on Saturday morning when five prisoners admitted to the jail hospital were found missing during routine headcount. The officials later found iron rods, bed-sheets and other articles purportedly used by the prisoners to make their escape from the rear side of the medical ward at the jail.
Buxar district magistrate Raman Kumar said the prisoners escaped between midnight and 3am. According to a well-planned conspiracy, the prisoners got admitted to the medical ward on the pretext of seeking medical advice and then broke open the iron-grilled windows of the toilet, escaped from it (it was on the ground floor) and scaled the wall to flee from the prison.
Four of the convicts who fled - Sonu Singh, 35, (from Buxar), Sonu Pandey, 36, Upendra Sah, 25, (both residents of Bhojpur) and Deodhari Rai, 29, (from Saran) were serving life, Prajit Singh, 33, (East Champaran) was awarded death in a murder case.
Among the four serving life sentence, Sonu Singh and Sonu Pandey were convicted for kidnapping, Deodhari for rape and Upendra for murder, respectively.
As news spread, Buxar district magistrate Raman Kumar, superintendent of police Upendra Sharma and other senior officials rushed to the jail premises to inquire about the incident.
Sharma later said that the district's borders had been sealed and frantic searches launched to nab the fugitives. "We have also alerted our counterparts in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh," he said.
Inspector-general (Shahabad range) Mohammad Rahman also took stock of the situation and directed the superintendents of police of three adjoining districts - Rohtas, Kaimur and Bhojpur - to assist the Buxar police in catching the prisoners.
Earlier, principal secretary, home, Amir Subhani, said he had instructed the deputy inspector-general (jail) to look into the matter and submit a detailed report.
"Action will be taken after fixing responsibility of the officers concerned," he said.
The prisoners escaped even though security at the eight central jails was reviewed by the IG (prisons) in the wake of two recent jailbreaks in Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) and Nabha (Punjab). "It seems the officials didn't learn any lessons from the previous incidents," said a senior official.
In November 2005, Bihar had witnessed the biggest ever jailbreak in which over 300 prisoners, including top ranking Maoist leaders, had escaped from the Jehanabad jail.
