As investigations into the Sabarmati Central Jail tunnel episode have progressed, authorities have stumbled upon startling facts about the escape plans of prisoners held for terrorism.
The jail authorities had last months discovered a 16-feet tunnel inside the high security barrack where the Indian Mujahideen (IM) members, all accused in the July 2008 serial blasts in which 56 people were killed, were lodged.
But, an inspection of the site by the Crime Branch police the very next day had found another 26-feet horizontal shift after the 16-feet almost vertical slope discovered by the jail guards themselves.
A high-level inquiry team comprising senior Home Department officers and IPS officers was immediately ordered to conduct a thorough probe into the tunnel episode.
The joint inspection of the tunnel conducted on Thursday with help of the Fire Brigade department revealed that the tunnel was actually 200-feet long and had gone out of the jail's main compound, all underground.
All that was required by the under-trials to escape was to dig up about 16-feet vertically at the outer end to find an opening into an open field behind the high security prison, a job that would have taken just another 72 hours.
Eye-brows are naturally being raised about how such a huge tunnelling operation could escape the notice of the jail guards and complicity of the staff is being suspected.
The questions that remain unanswered include how the 14 under-trials dug the 200-feet tunnel with simple tools like their dinner plates, spoons and mugs.
Another mystery is about where they had disposed off the wet soil dug out of the 200-feet tunnel, wide enough for an adult human being to pass through.