[ Bengia Ajum ]
NAMSAI, 19 Aug: The Namsai police have launched a massive manhunt to rearrest the four hardcore criminals, including an NSCN insurgent, who escaped from the judicial jail here in the wee hours of Sunday. The Assam Rifles and the CRPF have joined the local police in the search operation.
Eastern range DIGP Kime Aya informed this daily that the manhunt will continue till all four are rearrested. The prisoners, identified as Mineswar Dihingia (37), Gopal Munda (23), Arjun Kandha (27), and Robin Surin (45), escaped after breaking the grills of the ventilators of their cell. As they were fleeing, the lone sentry, identified as Pintu Isna of the IRBn, confronted them and fought hard to stop them from fleeing. A video of Isna engaged in a violent fight with one of the fleeing criminals is going viral on social media. He has reportedly sustained serious injuries from the attacks by the criminals and is under treatment.
At the time of the incident, there was only one sentry at the judicial jail, raising serious question marks. Reportedly, the other sentry was on leave, due to which Isna was alone on duty on the fateful morning.
Namsai SP Sangey Thinley has initiated action against some officials of the jail for negligence. At the time of the incident, there were altogether nine inmates in the jail, out of which four managed to escape.
This is not the first time that a jailbreak has been reported from Namsai district. In the past also,prisoners have escaped from jails in the district. In April 2017, 12 undertrial prisoners (UTPs) escaped from the Chongkham police outpost in Namsai district. The UTPs had asked one of the guards to repair a fan inside the lockup. When the guard entered the lockup, the prisoners allegedly pushed him aside and managed to escape.
In another major jailbreak on 19 July, 2013, 18 UTPs managed to flee from the Chowkham police outpost lockup in the wee hours.
In the past, jailbreaks occurred in other parts of the state too. In November 2015, four UTPs lodged in the district jail in Jully in the Itanagar Capital Region made a jailbreak, which was noticed only when the sentry was taking a headcount the next day.
In another jailbreak in November 2016, seven UTPs escaped from the Daporijo police station in Upper Subansiri district after breaking the main entry door. However, all escapees were arrested within 48 hours from different locations in Upper Subansiri district.
Following the incident, five policemen, including one guard commander, were suspended. More recently, in 2023, two NSCN operatives – Roksen Homcha and Titpu Kitnya – escaped from the central jail in Tirap after killing the jail guard. A few days later the security forces managed to rearrest Homcha, who is a militant of the NSCN (K) Niki-Sumi group.