Series of security lapses led to Dantewada jailbreak

JAIL HOUSE BLUES: The Centre has advised naxal-hit states install night vision devices and train their policemen better.

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Keywords: Naxals, Jailbreak

New Delhi: It seems as if the Dantewada jailbreak was just waiting to happen. Just last year, prison officials at Dantewada had identified 185 prisoners — mostly Naxals — as extremely dangerous and even sought court permission to shift them to the Jagdalpur Central jail.

Despite this, the man who instigated the Dantewada jailbreak was being used as a compounder, treating fellow prisoners and basically making a mockery of jail security.

Home and Jail Minister Ram Vichar Netam said, ""We have asked the Centre to send us extra forces to deal with the Naxal problem but have not got them yet. This is not the time to talk but for action. I do not agree at all with the Union Home Minister."

Amongst the other lapses, a state government inquiry has revealed that the jail had a capacity to house 175 prisoners, but Dantewada district jail had 377 inmates. This was because prisoners from the neighbouring Bijapur and Sukma prisons had been shifted here to make room for security forces fighting the naxals.

And shockingly, of the 377 prisoners only four were convicts — the rest were all undertrials.

If that's not all, the man under the scanner for his links with the naxal prisoners, Deputy Jailor B S Manekar, now admits the prison guards were unarmed and their arms kept locked in the armoury.

"During the day, we keep the arms locked in the armoury and take them out only at night," Manekar stated.

This statement comes despite the fact that earlier this week, the Centre had at a high level meeting on naxalism and had asked the states to step up prison security.

Forty-eight hours before the Dantewada jailbreak, the Centre has advised naxal-hit states install night vision devices and train their policemen better — a piece of advise that just goes shows how out of sync state and Central governments are with each other.