Theni (Tamil Nadu): The fallout from this week's Theni jailbreak escalated on Saturday, October 31, with Chief Minister Vijay dismissing Deputy Jail Superintendent N. Ramalingam from service, the ANI news agency reported. Ramalingam, who had been posted at the Theni district prison since August 2024, was removed over alleged lapses in prison administration and security supervision. In total, 17 prison personnel have now been placed under suspension in the case and a departmental inquiry has been ordered against them, ANI said.
The dismissal is the latest in a chain of developments in the case, each reported as it happened: on the night of Monday, October 26, 17 remand prisoners escaped from the Thekkampatti sub-jail near Andipatti in Theni district after staging a fake medical emergency — one prisoner feigned an epileptic seizure, and when a warder opened the cell the inmates overpowered him and seized the keys. A search involving 17 specialised police teams, five Special Task Force units and four Tamil Nadu Special Police battalions recaptured all 17 within about 40 to 43 hours.
From nine suspensions to the prisons chief's transfer
Nine jail staff were suspended in the first round of action on October 27. On Thursday, October 29, the state government transferred the Director General of Police (Prisons and Correctional Services), Dr Sandeep Rai Rathore, to a posting with the state power utility TANGEDCO, and appointed K. Shankar as the new prisons chief. Saturday's dismissal of the deputy superintendent and the rise in suspensions from nine to 17 mark the widest disciplinary action in the case so far.
The Chief Minister has also directed that foolproof security and surveillance measures be ensured in all prisons across Tamil Nadu, ANI reported. The recaptured inmates are being shifted to high-security central prisons in the state after court remands — five were remanded to judicial custody until November 10 and eight until November 11. The Theni escape came days after two convicts escaped from the high-security Puzhal Central Prison near Chennai on October 20; they were caught after a two-day search. What happens next will turn on the departmental inquiry's findings and whether further officials are held responsible for the security lapses.
Source: ANI via World News 24x7