Civil rights groups want separate probe into jailbreak

RANCHI: Shailendra Bhushan IG (prison) on Wednesday began investigation into Tuesday’s Chaibasa jailbreak incident, in which two prisoners were killed and three injured. The West Singhbhum police, on the other hand, lodged an FIR with the Sadar police station accusing the jail guard of being negligent.
"Let me talk to the people here and listen to their versions of the incident. It is only after talking to them that I can decide which way the investigation should proceed," said Bhushan, unwilling to buy the theory of connivance of jail authorities .s
According to sources, the 1884-Chaibasa divisional jail is not linked with video conferencing and undertrial prisoners are produced before the court physically.It was on Tuesday that a batch of 55 undertrial prisoners was taken to the local court for production.
"We had provided two bullet-proof vehicles, police force from the local police station and a prisoners' van. After production in court, when it returned to the jail, some goof occurred and the inmates started to escape," Chaibasa SP N K Singh said.
According to the FIR lodged by police with the Sadar police station, the jail guard who is responsible for opening the main gate for entry of the van and then closing it before opening the second gate and door of the van, violated standard operational procedure. "Instead of closing the main gate before opening the second gate of prisoner’s van, he left the main gate open," the SP said.
Irked with the incident, civil rights groups now plan to conduct a separate inquiry to ascertain if jail authorities were to be blamed for the incident or if the firing was necessary.
Jharkhand state human rights commission chairperson, Justice Narayan Rai, will also intervene. "If media reports on the state administration ordering an inquiry is to be believed, we may step in," he said.