The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday, October 29, transferred Director General of Police (Prisons and Correctional Services) Sandeep Rai Rathore, days after 17 undertrial prisoners staged a jailbreak at the Thekkampatti sub-jail in Theni district before being recaptured, The Hindu reported. Rathore has been posted as Director General of Police and Chief Vigilance Officer of the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) in Chennai.

Source: The Hindu via News89

Additional Director General of Police K. Shankar, who was heading the Enforcement Bureau CID in Chennai, has been appointed as the new head of prisons and correctional services. The transfer orders were issued by Principal Secretary to the Government A. Karthik, according to the reporting.

Source: NDTV

This follows the earlier development reported this week: the 17 inmates escaped at around 10 p.m. on Monday after staging a medical emergency by pretending that one of them was having an epileptic seizure. When a guard entered the cell to help, they overpowered and assaulted him, seized the keys to the main gate and fled into nearby forested areas, police said.

Source: PTI via News89

All 17 escapees were recaptured by Wednesday, after a search involving 17 specialised teams, five Special Task Force units and four Tamil Nadu Special Police battalions, with drones used to scan dense forest cover, police told PTI. The final two fugitives, identified as Tirupathi and Meenakshisundaram, were captured on Wednesday.

Authorities have also begun moving the recaptured inmates to high-security central prisons in Salem, Vellore, Cuddalore and Puzhal after court formalities, police said. Five inmates were remanded until November 10, another eight until November 11, and the remaining prisoners captured on Wednesday were scheduled to appear in court on Thursday. Theni Superintendent of Police Praveen Gowtham told PTI that preventing the fugitives from crossing state borders had remained the top priority, and investigators are examining the motive for the jailbreak and whether it was planned by others.