All 17 Inmates Who Escaped From Theni Jail Recaptured Within 43 Hours
Tamil Nadu police have recaptured all 17 undertrial prisoners who escaped from the Theni District Jail in Thekkampatti, arresting the final two fugitives on Wednesday, within 43 hours of the jailbreak.
The last two absconding inmates, identified as Meenakshi Sundaram and Thirupathi, were arrested and brought to the Kanavilakku police station for interrogation, police said.
Earlier on Wednesday, police apprehended two other fugitives, Ponmuthu Selvan and Regin, in the Amachiyapuram hilly area near the prison complex. With their arrests, the search for all 17 prisoners who escaped late on October 26 came to an end.
The jailbreak took place around 10 pm on Monday when the inmates allegedly staged a fake medical emergency, pretending that one of them was suffering an epileptic seizure.
When a prison guard entered their cell to assist the inmate, the prisoners allegedly overpowered and assaulted him. They then seized the keys to the main gate, opened the entrance and fled into nearby forested areas.
Following the escape, Tamil Nadu police launched an extensive search operation to trace the fugitives. The operation involved 17 special police teams, five Special Task Force units and surveillance drones, with searches conducted across the region and neighbouring districts.
Police managed to recapture 13 of the escaped prisoners by October 27. The remaining four were tracked down and arrested on Wednesday, bringing the operation to a close.
The swift recapture of all the inmates within 43 hours followed intensive search efforts in the areas surrounding the prison. The final two arrests were made after police continued combing the region for the remaining fugitives.
All 17 prisoners were undertrials at the time of their escape. Further interrogation is expected to help investigators establish the sequence of events during the jailbreak and determine the circumstances that enabled the inmates to overpower the guard and flee from the prison premises.