Kataka: The Odisha Police arrested a senior superintendent of a jail in Kataka district for allegedly forging documents in connection with the escape of two murder accused last year, an officer said Monday.
Choudwar Circle Jail senior superintendent Sujit Kumar Raula was apprehended from his home in Bhubaneswar Sunday evening and produced before a court in Kataka, he said.
He was remanded to 14-day judicial custody, the officer said.
“The senior superintendent of the Choudwar Circle Jail was arrested for alleged forging of documents in connection with the escape of two murder accused last year,” the officer said.
The police action was taken after the Orissa High Court had August 29 withdrawn an interim protection and rejected an anticipatory bail plea in a case registered against the jail official at Choudwar Police Station.
On January 17 this year, Santosini Dash, the then jailer of the Choudwar Circle Jail in Kataka, lodged a complaint against the senior superintendent, accusing him of forging documents following the escape of two murder accused – Madhukant Rana and Raja Sahani – from the prison premises late October 2 last year.
The jailer had alleged that the senior superintendent facilitated the escape of the two accused.
Based on her complaint, the police registered a case and began an investigation into the alleged manipulation of the jail’s minute book, an administrative ledger, and entry-exit registers.
Dash was later transferred to Kantabanji sub-jail in Bolangir district.
She also accused the senior superintendent of the Choudwar Circle Jail of forging her signature in the jail minute book on October 2 in a bid to shift responsibility for security lapses.
The jail’s senior superintendent rejected the allegations and lodged a counter-complaint against Dash January 18, accusing her of dereliction of duty and indirectly facilitating the jailbreak.
The Odisha Police have arrested the two under-trial prisoners again, the officer said.
Two people were killed January 4 last year as the two accused attempted to rob a jewellery store in Panikoili in Jajpur.