New Delhi, February 28: Four cops injured in attack, two escapees nabbed later, police order inquiry
Scores of policemen stood near the barricades put up on Sohna road, two kilometres ahead of Palwal court in Haryana, late Saturday afternoon.
On the spot where the two barricades stood, a police bus taking 51 prisoners from Bhondsi jail to Palwal court for hearing came to a sudden halt around 10.30 am and 16 prisoners, most of them charged with robbery and kidnapping, escaped.
They left behind at least four injured policemen and several questions for the Haryana Police.
Palwal police have ordered an inquiry into the incident and said they could not give a clean chit to the police personnel at this stage.
The district police bus had 14 armed policemen to guard the inmates on the 55-km distance from Bhondsi jail to Palwal court, according to the police.
“The bus took the Housing Colony road and then suddenly stopped,” Arun Mudgal, 17, a tea stall-owner opposite the Housing Colony turn, said. “Within a minute, I saw people running away and some getting into another car that was behind the bus.”
While 18 inmates managed to escape initially, the police claim to have arrested two of them.
Palwal Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Sanjay Kumar denied that a car — a white Mahindra Bolero, according to witnesses — was trailing the bus, and that some of the prisoners fled in it.
SSP Kumar said, “The prisoners (in the bus) suddenly attacked the armed policemen and pounced on the driver. The policemen got no time to react or fire shots in the air to make them back off.”
Once the prisoners jumped off the bus, the policemen “decided against firing on a busy road to avoid injuries to civilians”, SSP Kumar said.
According to the police, Sub-Inspector Nand Lal and Head Constables Jaipal, Naresh and Ashraf Khan were injured — all of them received sharp cuts and stab wounds. The police said the injuries were inflicted with sharp metal objects, like sharpened spoons.
Mudgal, the tea stall boy, said policemen — many of them bleeding — got off the bus a few minutes after the prisoners fled. “They (prisoners) ran in different directions; the police began searching for them quite late,” Mudgal said.
Station House Officer of Palwal City police station Yad Ram said two of the escaped prisoners, Mushtaq and Saji, were arrested soon but details of the arrests were not divulged. Both Mushtaq and Saji are accused in murder and robbery cases.
Praising the policemen escorting the inmates, SHO Yad Ram said they managed to stop the others from escaping even after injuries to colleagues. Sources in Haryana Police, though, said only the 18 inmates made an attempt to escape; the others did not want to run since many of them were in jail for smaller offences.
SSP Kumar said Additional SP Hukam Singh will head the inquiry ordered by Palwal police. “Things will be clear only after the report comes out tomorrow,” he said. “We have not given a clean chit to our policemen yet.” Palwal police have registered a case under IPC Sections 224, 225, 332, 333, 353, 186 against the prisoners.
——–Agencies