Two inmates playing vaanars in Ram Leela flee Haridwar jail while 'searching for Sita'
Haridwar District Jail has a long-standing tradition of Ram Leela, entirely managed by the inmates, including performance and stage management. On Friday, during the Ram Leela, Pankaj and Rajkumar, sneaked out of the jail using the performance as a cover.
In a rather bizarre case of jailbreak, two inmates have fled from a jail in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, during a Ram Leela performance. The two men, identified as Pankaj and Rajkumar, were members of the Vanara Sena in the Ram Leela at the jail complex located in Roshnabad.
CREDIT: BCCL
Inmates flee jail during Ram Leela
According to reports, the Haridwar District Jail has a long-standing tradition of Ram Leela, entirely managed by the inmates, including performance and stage management. However, on Friday, during the Ram Leela, Pankaj and Rajkumar, who were among the Vanara Sena members searching for Sita, sneaked out of the jail using the performance as a cover.
The two inmates, along with other members of the Hanuman-led army of monkeys, were searching for Sita, who was abducted by Ravana, and they left the stage during the act, which the audience believed was part of the performance.
A Ramleela performance was underway at the Haridwar jail when two monkeys, sent out to search for Mata Sita, failed to return.
¡ª Rishabh Rajput (@_RishabhRajput) October 12, 2024
Upon investigation, it was discovered that the two had escaped by leaping over the prison boundary.
pic.twitter.com/A98qera8MC
Went to search for Sita
But when the duo did not return on time from their mission, the audience and the authorities started suspecting something was wrong. By the time the prison authorities started looking for them, the prisoners had fled the complex, using the cover of darkness and a ladder to jump over the boundary wall.
#WATCH | Haridwar, Uttarakhand | District Magistrate Karmendra Singh says, "...Construction work is going on in the jail, also, Ramleela was being organised here, yesterday; taking benefit from this, both the prisoners escaped from the jail using a ladder. Certainly, it's an¡ pic.twitter.com/FNFQpugCYF
¡ª ANI (@ANI) October 12, 2024
Murder convict among fled inmates
According to the police, Pankaj, a native of Roorkee, was serving a life sentence for his involvement in a murder case, while Rajkumar, from Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, was under trial for an alleged kidnapping case.
CREDIT: BCCL
Haridwar: SSP Pramendra Singh Dobhal says, "This morning, around 6: 30 AM, we received information through the control room that two inmates had escaped from the jail. They took advantage of a program happening during the Ramleela event last evening, lifted a ladder from the¡ pic.twitter.com/n13cI0o522
¡ª IANS (@ians_india) October 12, 2024
The incident has raised serious questions about the security lapse in the jail, while police said a search is on for the two men.
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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