19 prisoners flee amid exchange of fire on way to jail

‘‘In the ensuing melee, 21 of the undertrials fled while 20 others stayed put. All three policemen were injured in the incident,’’ said Batra. The police managed to catch two of the undertrials — Surendra Razak and Moti Ram — minutes after the incident, sources said.

All the three injured policemen were admitted to Sadar Hospital, where the condition of one was said to be critical.

Jail Superintendent Ranjan Choudhury said, ‘‘The undertrials who escaped except Manoj Kumar, who is a notorious kidnapper from Nalanda district in Bihar, were all small-time criminals.’’ Choudhury, who took charge on April 20, suspects that the crime was masterminded by Manoj, who was denied bail. ‘‘None other than his gang could dare commit such a crime,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, police said all police stations in Hazaribagh and Nalanda had been alerted and raids launched to track down the undertrials. Today’s incident has exposed the lax security and inhuman conditions in the Hazaribagh jail. Only on April 16, to protest the poor quality of food in the jail, prisoners had launched a fast-unto-death agitation.