Chandigarh, January 23
Fresh sand deposits had been noticed in the septic tanks of the barrack of the escaped alleged assassins of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh, but the jail authorities had overlooked the findings.

Sources said the sweeper had reportedly told the authorities about the presence of sand in the septic tanks, but they dismissed it as a clue to what the three persons and their cook were up to.

There were a number of indications of either connivance or negligence on the part of the supervisory staff of the jail.

The jail authorities said they might have been mixing the sand with water to dispose of the loose earth taken out while digging the tunnel. But the amount of the loose earth indicates there might have been blockages in the toilet several times.

It is, however, not clear if there had been frequent blockages in the toilets of the three alleged Beant Singh assassins.

There is another suspicion. The disappearance of the alleged assassins was hidden from the police for more than five hours as prisoners said there was an alarm at around 3.30 and the lights of the barracks were put on. However, it is yet to be found whether they had escaped by that time or not. Why was this alarm rung?

These facts came to notice when the Chandigarh Administration allowed the media to see the barrack of the three and the tunnel dug by them.

The inspection of the tunnel from the entry point shows it was a neatly done job requiring lot of technical details.

The direction of the tunnel and its slope up towards the exit indicates that the alleged assassins of Beant Singh had structural maps of the jail. The exit point of the tunnel falls at a place where the search lights do not fall.

The escaped undertrials also probably had a compass to continue their work in the same direction. Without the compass, experts feel it was not possible to continue the work in the same direction which is very crucial for tunnels. The police has not given any indication of this. During their last attempt, they allegedly dug up a tunnel with a dead end.

The escaped persons had also put in an iron rod at the entry point of the tunnel to go 14 feet inside through a rope.

The exit point of the tunnel was shown to around 83 media persons but it had been sealed on the advice of the forensic experts who hope to gather some clue about the escape and a possible assistance from outside.

An interesting aspect has also emerged that the barrack of the Beant Singh case under-trials had been kept not more than 10 feet from the third security wall.

The undertrials seemed to have deliberately chosen a rainy day to escape as the CRPF jawans deployed on the sentry post are likely to go back from their designated position to save themselves from the rain as the glass shield around them was broken.