Amid mounting pressure from police, two out of the six inmates, who had escaped from the State-run Child Observation Home at Dummardagga in Ranchi on Sunday, were brought back and handed over to the authorities by their parents on Monday.
Six inmates of child observation home, charged with crimes ranging from theft to involvement in rebel related cases to rape, had escaped after scaling over 15-feet-high boundary wall in the wee hours of Sunday.
“After we built up pressure on the family members of runaway children along with conducting raids at various possible locations, their parents today brought them back and handed them over to the authorities of observation home,” said Officer in Charge of Sadar Police Station Madan Kumar Thakur. Both of them belonged to Ranchi itself, added Thakur.
While in case of other four inmates, respective police stations have been asked to look into the matter. Out of six, two of them belonged to Ranchi under Jagannathpur Police Station, two from Khunti and the remaining two from latehar.
“One of the boys hailing from Ranchi was accused in a theft while the other one was accused in rape case. Boys belonging to Khunti on the other hand were accused in 14 and four Naxal related cases respectively,” said a police official. One of the latehar boys was indulged in rape case while the other one was booked under POCSO Act, added the official.
A search has been launched to locate them from all possible locations also informing the parents to voluntarily hand them over back to the observation home authorities.
Observation Home authorities also asserted that all of them adopted the same technique and jumped the wall by taking help of three bed-sheets, tied with each other, and hooking it on the barbed fencing on the boundary wall.
According to the police, the first boy fled the Observation Home on Saturday afternoon while the other five jumped the wall around 3:30 am on Sunday.
Sources also revealed that the incident was an outcome of the lack of security arrangement where security of over 70 inmates is put to the disposal of only one guard and a cook guarding the premises.
“There are only three guards who are put on roaster duty of eight hours for each of them while a section of force remains stranded at the entrance,” said the official requesting anonymity.