Poha, girlfriends and prison breaks: Jaipur jail scandal leaves officials red-faced; 13 arrested
Jaipur (PTI): What was supposed to be a routine hospital visit for five inmates from the Jaipur Central Jail turned into an impromptu city tour with poha breakfasts, hotel stays, and reunions with wives and girlfriends.
A total of 13 people, including five constables, four inmates and four relatives, were arrested on Sunday after it came to the fore that the inmates had allegedly paid bribes to enjoy a few hours of freedom outside the jail, the police said on Monday.
The four inmates, Rafiq Bakri, Bhanwar Lal, Ankit Bansal, and Karan Gupta, had allegedly secured approvals for medical checkups at the SMS Hospital.
But instead of heading to their appointments, they allegedly bribed their way for a leisurely day out in the city, and only one prisoner made it to the hospital, the police said.
None of the four returned to the jail by the 5.30 pm deadline on Saturday.
"This outing was arranged for around Rs 25,000, routed through a middleman. The escorting constables were promised Rs 5,000 each," said a senior officer involved in the investigation.
Rafiq and Bhanwar met their wife and ex-girlfriend, respectively, at a Jalupura hotel, where Rafiq's wife was later found with narcotics and was booked under the NDPS Act, DCP (East) Tejaswani Gautam said.
Ankit and Karan were tracked to a hotel near the airport, where they were seen having poha for breakfast. The room was booked by Ankit's girlfriend.
Later, the police detained Karan's relative carrying Rs 45,000 in cash at one of the hotels, along with several inmate ID cards.
Jail sources said that the outing was masterminded by a convicted extortionist still operating from inside the prison.
Investigators say that over 200 phone calls intercepted since April reveal a deeper network of bribes, unauthorised mobile use, and alleged threats to VIPs, including Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma.
A case has been registered at the Sawai Man Singh Police Station, and an investigation and search has been initiated in the Jaipur Central Jail, the police stated.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
