Chennai: Tamil Nadu Director General of Prisons Sandeep Rai Rathore has been shunted out after 17 undertrial prisoners escaped from Theni District Jail, with all the fugitives recaptured within 43 hours. Authorities have initiated steps to transfer the prisoners to high-security correctional facilities across the state, police said on Thursday.
The jailbreak took place around 10 pm on October 26 at the prison in Thekkampatti. The inmates allegedly staged a fake medical emergency, pretending that one of them was suffering an epileptic seizure. When a guard entered their cell to help, they allegedly overpowered and assaulted him, seized the main gate keys and fled.
Police launched a large-scale search operation, deploying 17 special teams, five Special Task Force units and surveillance drones across the region and neighbouring districts. Thirteen inmates were recaptured by October 27, while the remaining four were caught on Wednesday.
The final two fugitives, identified as Tirupathi and Meenakshisundaram, were arrested on Wednesday, bringing the search operation to a close.
According to police, after fleeing the Aranjanaipudur area on a motorcycle towards Uthamapalayam, the escapees borrowed a stranger's phone in Ammachipuram to contact their associates. The associates allegedly provided them with money, clothes and vehicles.
The recaptured prisoners are now set to be transferred to high-security correctional facilities across Tamil Nadu, police said.
(With agency inputs from PTI and ANI)