A prisoner, presently lodged in Haridwar jail, escaped from a speeding train while being taken to court at Haldwani from Haridwar on Saturday. He gave the police escorts a slip while he pretended going to the train toilet. Police seemed to have taken no lesson from the incident of gangster Amit Malik alias Bhura escaping from the police custody when he was being taken to the court in Baghpat in December, last year. All the three cops escorting the convict have been suspended.
Police sources said that Zakir Husain serving life imprisonment for murder of a woman was shifted for security reasons to Haridwar jail from Haldwani jail in 2013. He escaped while being taken to Haldwani in connection with a case pending before family court over some disputes with his wife. Husain, native of Haryana, had reached Nainital along with his female friend in 2002 and stayed in a hotel, Tallital, Nainital. In a fit of rage, he had killed the woman. He had been given life imprisonment in November 2004. He challenged the sentence in High Court and the latter upheld the lower court verdict on the case.
Three Haridwar policemen- Kamal Ram, Sakib Ali and Mukesh Kumar- were deputed to escort the inmate from Haridwar to Haldwani. These cops boarded link Express train for Haldwani along with the convict on Friday. When this train reached near lalkuan station Husain pretended going to the train toilet. later, he jumped from the running train when the train was passing the forest area in lalkuan.
Sources said the cops too jumped from the train but failed to apprehend him. Two of them- Sakib Ali and Mukesh Kumar-were seriously injured while chasing him out of the train. They are being treated in Haldwani hospital. After the senior police officers were informed combing operation began in lalkaun forest area. Three escort cops were put under suspension. Police have been directed to be vigilant along the border areas as there is a possibility of the convict crossing the frontier for a safe refuge.
Nainital senior superintendent of police (SSP) Senthil Akdai Krishnaraj said that several teams have been formed to nab the convict. A case under appropriate sections of IPC has been registered against the policemen who were escorting him during the transit the main charge being negligence of duty, he added.