JODHPUR/JAISALMER: Police have arrested two more prisoners on Thursday from two different places in Jodhpur and Jaisalmer who had fled from Phalodi jail with 14 other inmates on the night of April 5. Before this, police had arrested one prisoner from Bikaner while 13 continue to be out of the police net yet.
Those arrested on Thursday have been identified as Rajkumar Bishnoi, an accused under NDPS Act, and Shaukat Ali, a murder accused. Police arrested one Amre Khan for providing shelter to Shaukat Ali who was caught from canal area in Mohangarh under Jaisalmer close to India-Pakistan border. He was about to cross over to Pakistan.
SP (Jodhpur Rural) Anil Kayal said that both of them were arrested after an untiring chase of three days by many police teams following intelligence input about their whereabouts.
“These prisoners had been constantly changing their locations covering Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Bikaner in vast stretches of desert. Our teams continue to trace their locations and chase them day and night for three days straight,” said Kayal. Before this, one inmate Mohan Ram Bishnoi had been arrested by Bikaner police from Bajju area where he had been hiding at the farm of his brother for three days. Police had to chase him for over a kilometre in desert sand to catch him at night.
It may be noted that police have also arrested Manish Bishnoi who was instrumental in staging this escape and had coordinated with the inmates in jail through phone. He was present with two vehicles near the jail and had dropped all the 16 inmates at different places after picking them up from jail the same night.
According to the investigation so far, it has been learnt that the prisoners awaiting bail had planned the escape assuming the difficulty in getting bail on account of corona pandemic. Some of these prisoners had mobile phones with them and the plan had been finalised by three prisoners, including Shaukat Ali, caught by police on Thursday.
In the interrogation, Mohan Ram disclosed that all the 16 prisoners had full idea about what and how to be done for escape. They rushed out of the unlocked gate of the jail without any resistance from the jail guards and headed straight in the direction where two vehicles had been waiting for them.
