Two wardens of the Morigaon district jail in Assam have been suspended for alleged lapses that helped five undertrial prisoners escape on October 11.
The duo, Tapan Bhuyan and Anup Malakar, were suspended for alleged negligence following an investigation carried out by officials of the prisons directorate headed by the inspector general (prisons) Pubali Gohain, an official said.
In wake of the jailbreak, the directorate had suspended jailer Prasanta Saikia and transferred assistant jailer Nabadeep Lekharu and jail superintendent Manas Das.
Abdul Rashid, Saifuddin, Ziarul Islam, Nur Islam and Mafidul — all booked under the Pocso Act — escaped on October 11 by cutting through the window grille of their cell and scaling the 20-feet high boundary wall of the jail.
On Monday, the body of an undertrial prisoner was recovered from a water body, about 30 kilometres away from the jail, but the other four are still at large.
An official told The Telegraph that the inspector general (prisons) had carried out an inspection of the jail on Wednesday and recommended several steps for boosting surveillance.
The official said: “Two of the recommendations included increasing the height of the watchtowers and number of CCTVs and their placements in the jail. The district administration, on its part, has also decided to carry out frequent inspections to prevent a repeat. We hope these steps will improve surveillance as well as accountability.”
