Nagpur: A murder convict who was serving life term has escaped from the Central Jail on Wardha Road on September 18, 2014 afternoon. The escaped convict is identified as Suraj Arkel aged 40 years and a resident of Wardha. Suraj was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Jail officers had alerted Wardha police and other suspected areas to search for Arkel. Immediately after escaping he had picked up his minor girl-friend and fled the city. However, with the cops on his trail, he was apprehended with his girl-friend from his aunt’s house (Bua’s house) in Murtizapur.
Brief History:
This escaped Convict Suraj Arkhed had somehow succeeded in procuring a mobile phone inside the Central Jail. He used to often help other convicts to contact their loved ones from the jail through his mobile phone. He used to allegedly take an exhorbitant charges for enabling them to talk with their loved ones. He used to give some part of the earned money to the officials and authorities too. (This is under investigation now). One thief too landed in the Central Jail. The thief expressed to Suraj, his desire to talk to his sister who was studying in XIIth class. Suraj gave the mobile phone to the thief and he could talk to his sister. After that this became a regular affair. However, after the thief’s conversation, Suraj too started conversing with the girl and a romance bloomed. Sources said that Suraj spoke with the girl for hours. Soon the girl started coming to meet him in the jail. 15 day’s ago, when the girl had come to meet Suraj, He had gifted her with a mobile costing 15,000 from the money earned in the jail.
When the romance bloomed to full extent, the budding lovers planned to escape from Nagpur and get married. Suraj was helped by another convict named Prakash. Suraj had only 1.5 years left to finish his sentence. By this time, Suraj and 20 other convicts were selected to do farming work outside the jail. Taking advantage of the fact that no special watch is kept on these 20 convicts, Suraj escaped from the site. On interrogation of the couple, it came to light that the girl had arrived at the rendezvous point in an auto. As soon as he arrived, the auto sped to the Bus Stand. While travelling to the bus stand, Suraj changed into civil dress and dumped his convicts uniform somewhere. After escaping, Suraj allegedly called the mother of the girl, a resident of Gaddigodam area and told her that they are escaping from Nagpur and will return only after marriage. However, as soon as the girl went missing, the parents of the girl had lodged a complaint with the Sadar police station. Meanwhile, the escape of a convict had police the police machinery on action.
As soon as Suraj talked to the mother of the girl, he switched off the mobile and switched it on only in Akola. Sources said that he first went to Amravati, from there he went to Murtizapur and finally to Akola. The cops managed to apprehend him and his girl friend from his Bua’s house in Akola.
After bringing the escaped convict Suraj to Nagpur, the cops of Sadar Police registered fresh cases against him. They produced him in the court, where he was awarded PCR till September 22, 2014. The cops had later handed over the girl to her parents.
One very startling fact has come to light, the easy availability of mobile phones in Central Jail. The escape of a convict also brings out the laxity shown by the Jail authorities.
