Five prisoners, booked under the stringent POCSO Act, cut through the window grille of their cell and used “lungis, blankets and bedsheets” as ropes to escape from a central Assam jail on Friday early morning.

The jailor of Morigaon district jail was suspended after a preliminary probe by the prison authorities.

An official said the undertrials escaped from the Morigaon district jail, established in 1986 and about 70km east of Guwahati.

The district administration had recommended “strict action” against the jailor and guards on duty for what appeared to be a “well-planned jailbreak”, the official told The Telegraph.

“After cutting through the window grilles, the five undertrials used lungis, bedsheets and blankets as ropes to scale the 20-foot jail wall. They used hacksaw blades, which are easy to hide and carry, to cut through the window grille,” the official said.

The undertrials, in their twenties and thirties, were lodged in jail around three months ago in separate cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act of 2012, carrying a minimum jail term of 20 years.

The undertrials were Abdul Rashid, Saifuddin, Ziarul Islam, Nur Islam and Mafidul. Four of them were from Morigaon district (Lahorighat and Moirabari), while one was from neighbouring Sonitpur district (Tezpur). None of them had been apprehended till late afternoon.