Theni: Manning a prison designed for 200 inmates but housing 334 prisoners could be a nightmare for the security staff. But for 17 of the inmates in Theni sub-jail, it was a perfect setup for a jailbreak.The prison officials are not sure about the time when the ‘operation’ was planned, but its execution was timed when there were only four staff inside the prison campus.“Around 9.45pm on Monday, Muthu Ilangovan of Block No. 3 faked an epileptic seizure as fellow inmates raised an alarm,” said south zone IG of police Vijayendra Bidari. Having seen him hospitalised thrice for seizures, constable Stalin Prabhu unlocked the block to help. He said Ilangovan appeared to be struggling to breathe.Within seconds, other inmates of the block threw a blanket over Stalin and assaulted him. Guard Madhan, who came there, initially assumed that the flutter was due to Ilangovan’s seizures. He asked the inmates to stay calm. But the inmates assaulted him as well. Only when they snatched his 1.5-sovereign gold chain and pinned him down did he realise that it was an escape bid.Madhan wedged his foot against the door to prevent it from closing, but the inmates overpowered him. The attackers pushed Madhan and the other guards inside the block and locked it, a source in the prison department said.The prisoners then moved to the kitchen, 20m away. They grabbed utensils and large vessels as ‘weapons’ before advancing towards the main entrance, where guard Thangapandi attempted to stop them. The inmates struck Thangapandi with the vessels, leaving him with bloody injuries to the head. He collapsed. The gang seized the keys and fled the block.Five prison guards waiting outside for a shift change tried to intercept the fleeing men. But the escapees hurled stones at them and ran towards the main exit. Back inside the locked block, Madhan blew his whistle repeatedly and pleaded with the remaining inmates to raise an alarm. “But they did not help the guards,” the prison source said.Just as the escapees reached the main exit, a police van arrived with another remand prisoner. Mistaking it for a team sent to capture them, the fugitives panicked and scattered in three directions.The inmates had crossed the prison’s three layers of security without triggering an alarm. The centralised siren system had failed to function.Later, police brass suspended nine personnel — two head constables, one grade-I prison guard and six grade-II guards. Officials are also probing the failure of the alarm system. Officials said they are not ruling out insider help. Police have deployed teams to keep a watch on the homes of the fugitives.The 17 escapees were undertrials facing cases involving murder, attempted murder, assault and narcotics-related offences. Five were accused in the June 28 murder of R Siddiq,24, who was hacked to death near Vikramangalam in Madurai district in a suspected revenge attack. Siddiq, a murder accused, was killed while on bail.
