Behind the daring Theni prison break: Only 4 guards on duty, none on watch tower, gate left unlocked

MADURAI: Only four prison officials were present though nine were supposed to be on duty. The nine watchtowers in the premises were left unmanned. The main gate was left open. And none of the officials followed standard protocol while attending to what turned to be a hoax medical emergency.

Though the police have managed to recapture 13 of the 17 prisoners who escaped from the Theni District Jail on Monday night, the sequence of events that DT Next managed to stitch together after speaking to multiple sources and those in the know reveals a story of a series of lapses that are alarming, and embarrassing for the Prisons and Home Department – and in turn the State government itself.

The police have launched a massive hunt, including using drones to trace the remaining prisoners, as the Western Ghats forest lies close to the prison. The State police are also in touch with their counterparts in Kerala and have shared photographs of the remaining escapees to keep vigil along the inter-State border in Theni.

Meanwhile, Director General of Prisons Sandeep Rai Rathore, who inspected the prison, suspended nine prison personnel for dereliction of duty.

It all began at around 10 pm, when a group of inmates in Block III raised an alarm, claiming that one of them was suffering from epileptic seizure. Believing it to be true, Stalin Prabhu, the Grade II guard on duty in the block, went into the overcrowded cell, which houses around 92 inmates. “They covered his head with a bed sheet and attacked him before leaving the cell with the key,” said a senior police officer requesting anonymity.

Hearing the commotion, another staff, Madan Mohan, entered the cell, but by then the situation had gone out of control. Thangapandi, a guard posted on the second security layer, tried to stop the inmates as they came out of the cell, but they hit him with a large ladle, overpowered him and moved towards the main gate. The guard on duty there, who was supposed to be armed with a gun, could not stop them, the officer said.

The prison has nine watch towers, but reportedly none was manned by a guard. “If even one guard had been on the tower close to the main entrance of the jail, this incident could have been avoided,” said another official source, adding that the main gate was also left open at the time of the incident.

“The preliminary investigation also revealed that only six prison personnel were on duty on Monday night, though nine were supposed to be there,” said an official source.

Of these six, the prison superintendent had left the jail, while another guard had gone out to buy food, leaving just four personnel to man the jail that houses 334 inmates against its sanctioned capacity of 200.

“It was the police personnel attached to the PC Patti police station, Theni, who had come to the jail to remand an accused, who alerted the higher officials about the incident,” said a police source.

One of the escapees, T Praveen Kumar from Madurai, returned to the prison on his own, fearing repercussions. Residents of a village caught two other inmates after the news spread like wildfire and handed them over to the police in the morning.

In all, police have secured 13: M Karuppasamy alias Madan, P Nisanth, M Muthu Ilangovan, R Karthik Raja, A Raja Sikkandar, K Rajkumar, P Prasath alias Linga and N Solaimugileswaran from Madurai; S Silambarasan from Theni; S Pandiselvam from Ramanathapuram; P Sabarinathan from Salem; C Dharunkumar from Sivaganga; and Praveen Kumar.

The incident occurred even though the Judicial Magistrate, Theni, had reportedly conducted a security audit of the prison recently. “This is the second such incident after two prisoners escaped from the Puzhal prison. It clearly shows a failure of intelligence and security procedures in the prison,” said a senior police officer requesting anonymity.

Three injured guards were admitted to the Theni Government Medical College Hospital for treatment. Thangapandi sustained grievous injuries, while the other two, Madan Mohan and Stalin Prabhu, sustained minor injuries. The Kandamangalam police registered a case under Sections 121(1), 296(b), 115(2), 118(1), 309(4), 109, 262 and 353(3) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Although the police teams, supervised by IG (South Zone) Vijayendra Bidari, secured 13 inmates by Tuesday evening, the incident shows the failure of the prison administration in the State, said a retired senior prison officer.

As per the prison manual, prison staff are required to examine physical, procedural and dynamic security on a daily basis. “Procedural security demands that the prison staff physically verify the inmate cells, including their belongings, while dynamic security involves intelligence gathering to assess the mindset of the prisoners, their background and case histories, and to act accordingly. This incident shows they have failed on both counts,” said the retired officer. He added that prison escapes do not happen all of a sudden, and that they are planned after assessing weaknesses in the jail’s security system.

The immediate trigger, described in official parlance as a contingent factor, was the recent escape of two prisoners from the Puzhal central prison, the officer said. It may have emboldened the inmates to make an attempt because there was no deterrence.

KR Raja, a prison activist and High Court advocate, said because the jails lack enough staff for cooking, sanitation and maintenance work, prison staff engage inmates for these tasks. Inmates, use this as an opportunity to build a close nexus with the authorities, which weakens the security system, he said.

“If 17 inmates are leaving in one go, there is a greater chance of such a nexus, so senior officials need to seriously investigate that aspect,” Raja added.

Raising another important point, Raja said the overcrowding in this jail suggests the prison authorities might be lodging accused persons from other districts in the jail. “As per the prison manual, district jails, which house only remand and undertrial prisoners, should lodge only persons facing criminal charges in that district, or those sent there on court directions,” he said, adding that officials need to examine this aspect too because 17 escaped inmates, 11 are from Madurai.