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| The juvenile home from where 27 inmates escaped on Monday night. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy |
Berhampur, May 27: Police today traced and detained 13 of 27 delinquents of a juvenile home — who had escaped last evening after injuring four employees, including the superintendent.
The injured persons — superintendent Sanjay Kumar Mahanty, caretaker Kamakshya Prasad Pati and two guards Gangadhar Das and Pramod Kumar Acharya — are said to be out of danger. The police have alerted various police stations to trace the inmates.
Deputy secretary of the department of women and child development Rashmita Panda, chief judicial magistrate-cum-president of the Juvenile Justice Board Debidutta Devi and Berhampur sub-collector Bijaya Kumar Das today visited the Juvenile Home for Children, run by the welfare department, to review the situation.
The sub-collector said the administration would shift all delinquents of the Juvenile Home for Children to a newly constructed building near the Nari Sadan here.
“I spoke to the home inmates. They complained about lack of space. There was no motive for escaping. All of them were instigated by one or two inmates to attack the employees and flee,” he said.
He said there were no complaints about quantity and quality of food served to the inmates. Steps are also being taken to avoid repetition of such incident.
Mahanty, who has suffered injuries on his head and hand, however, described the attack as pre-planned.
“At first, one boy came to me with a paniki (vegetable chopper) when I was sitting in my office room. He came nearer to me, despite my warning, and I caught hold of him as he tried to attack me. He tried to release himself. Suddenly, another group of juveniles came and attacked me with kathaphalia (wooden planks). They left the room after I fell down with injuries on my head,” Mahanty said.
Das, the injured guard, said he was attacked when he tried to come to the superintendent’s rescue. “I was in the cell No. 3 when I noticed some juveniles trying to attack the superintendent. As I was rushing towards them, someone hit me from behind with a wooden plank. I fell down,” he said.
An official said there were 84 children, and on Monday, there were only two guards on duty. “We have eight guards, who work in rotation in three shifts. Two guards for 84 juveniles are insufficient. There should be at least 15 guards here. I have had requested the authority to provide us four more guards recently,” said Mahanty.
The staff position of the home is eight guards and one head guard, one cook, one kitchen attendant, one peon to the superintendent and one caretaker, official sources said.
Board member Abani Shankar Parida said there was a need to segregate the boys. There are delinquents, who have crossed the age limit of 18 years, but are still lodged in the home, because the cases pertaining to them are not yet over.