Four prisoners escape from Hyderabad COVID hospital

Naveen S Garewal

Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, August 27

Four undertrial prisoners reportedly escaped from the COVID-19 ward of the Gandhi General Hospital here on Thursday.

The prisoners had been admitted to the hospital after they, along with others, were tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

After receiving the information from the hospital authorities, Chilkalguda police officials rushed to the spot and found the grills on the ventilators of a bathroom being removed to make an escape.

Thee police said that the prisoners had apparently recced the hospital during their stay and planned their escape.

The police said it appeared that after removing the grills, they climbed down from the second floor of the hospital holding on to a drainage pipe fixed to the wall and later escaped.

The hospital staff noticed that the prisoners had escaped after they failed to appear while they were taking attendance.

Before hospitalisation, they were lodged in the Charlapalli prison where they were remanded in cases related to thefts and robbery.

A statewide alert has been sounded and teams dispatched to nab them, said the police.

It may be recalled that a recent test in various state jails had shown high incidence of COVID-19 cases.

Earlier this month, apart from many prisoners, 13 staff members at the Warangal jail had tested positive.

Telangana has three Central jails, seven district prisons, 33 sub-jails, a women’s jail, a borstal, an open jail and four special prisons, among other detention facilities and prisons. All of these are packed with  convicts and undertrials beyond their capacity.

In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, reports of 337 out of 700 inmates tested for Covid-19 at the Kadapa jail last week returned positive.

Again in Vizag, 18 inmates and six officials of Central Prison at Adavivaram tested positive for coronavirus last week.