By IANS
Raipur : Chhattisgarh’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government suspended Deputy Inspector General (Jail) P.D. Verma while police arrested a jailer Monday, a day after 299 inmates including Maoist rebels escaped from a prison. Security has been enhanced at all jails across the state.
“Chief Minister Raman Singh has taken a serious view of the mass jail breakout and decided to suspend DIG (Jail) P.D. Verma at a meeting held Monday evening,” an official told IANS.
In Dantewada, about 380 km south of capital Raipur, police raided the house of jailer B.S. Mankar and arrested him for his alleged role in the mass jail breakout.
Police also searched jail barracks and found some chilly powder packets in one of the cells inhabited by Maoist commander Sujeet Kumar Rao, who led the 10-minute smooth breakout operation.
As many as 299 of the total 377 prisoners lodged in the jail in the headquarters of Maoist insurgency-hit Dantewada district fled from the jail after a small group of Maoist inmates overpowered two prison guards.
About 100 Maoists including 15 hardcore rebels were among the escapees.
Raman Singh had held an emergency meeting late Sunday night here. He asked top police officials to plug jail security loopholes and announced a magisterial inquiry into the breakout incident.
On Monday morning, the government also suspended five officials of the Dantewada jail including Mankar with immediate effect.
Chhattisgarh has sought help from the neighbouring states like Orissa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh to apprehend the escaped Maoists, who remained at large till late Monday even as police conducted a series of raids in the forested Bastar region.
The Raipur and Bilaspur central jails housing several dreaded Maoist militants were put on high alert after the incident.
State Home Minister Ramvichar Netam and Director General of Police Vishwaranjan visited the Dantewada jail to boost the morale of police and paramilitary troopers deployed in the district for the counter-insurgency operation.