The escape from Colvale Jail, of a prisoner who is undergoing trial, once again exposes the lax security at the jail. The prisoner who escaped had been arrested by Pernem Police in a narcotics case in January this year and is undergoing trial. He escaped from Colvale Central Jail on Tuesday when he was on garbage disposal duty. The escape appears to have been planned, otherwise how could he have got away and remain free despite the police being on the lookout for him?
Look at how it happened. Two convicts and two prisoners undergoing trial, under the supervision of main jail guard Prakash Naik emerged from the main gate of the prison to the outer gate where they began to segregate the waste. While doing so, Bharadwaj, on the excuse that he needed to answer nature’s call moved away from the spot and quickly managed to run away. It was only when the jail guard noticed that Bharadwaj was not around that he raised an alarm. The search launched by the jail authorities did not yield results, and the belief is that Bharadwaj took advantage of the vegetation around the jail premises to make good his escape. Bharadwaj was not caught even late Tuesday night. How did he manage to hide from the search teams? It begins to point out there this was planned move and there was outside help involved.
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This is not the first time that Colvale Jail has been in the news for the wrong reasons. It has happened quite often, with at one time even an inmate being murdered. But then, neither the staff nor the inmates appear to have learnt any lessons from past experience.
There was an incident that earlier this month forced the Prisons Department to initiate an inquiry into the goings on at the jail. The inquiry was necessitated after a video went viral showing inmates of the jail, led by a history-sheeter fearlessly moving around the jail building and even openly threatening a Nigerian who is also in the jail. The department had said that the video had been filmed months as some of those seen in it were no longer lodged at the jail. That doesn’t absolve the authorities as the fact that inmates can move around freely in the jail and that they possess cellphones are by themselves violations of the rules. In an earlier raid, 67 cell phones had been confiscated in the jail, but it is apparent that the phones continue to find their way into the premises.
There have been other incidents in the jail premises, including of bhang parties, but this escape raises a major question of security and that is one aspect that has to be addressed immediately. It is also not the first escape, so it calls for an entire review of the security at the jail. The suspension of the jail guard will not answer the various questions that this escape throws up. It demands a thorough inquiry.
Colvale is a new jail; it should be equipped with all the modern security systems, so it absolutely defies logic as to how a prisoner was able to escape so easily from the facility. The authorities have to take this seriously as the jail is beginning to appear too porous not just to smuggle banned items inside, but also to bend rules for the prisoners. Just earlier this month, in this column, Herald had said that we don’t need to read of any more unsavoury incidents arising from Colvale Jail. Nobody, however, pays heed and so we now have an escape to contend with.
