Six inmates of remand home escape

NEW DELHI, September 10: Six children committed to a remand home in Alipur escaped from custody en route to a clinic yesterday. They belonged to an unusually large group of ten being led out on the pretext that there was no doctor present at the remand home. He watchman who accompanied the children has since been sacked and an enquiry committee set up under the district officer, B. Meena, to probe into the incident.

According to Poornima Sethi, Delhi’s minister for social welfare, it was not just the watchman’s but also the connivance of some other employee in the home who are reponsible for the incident. Dr. R.P. Singh has given his statement to the police.

According to Satyendra Garg, DCP, North-West, the police is probing but no special squad has been set-up as the escapees were not criminals. Sethi agrees that the condition in the home is far from perfect. “Now we have to be over-cautious in dealing with the kids. Some of them have already come from places from where they ran away,” she said. It is a custodial home where juveniles with criminal records are also kept.