"I am an inmate. Come and arrest me," 19-year-old Faizan had to call out to security personnel guarding the perimeter wall of Tihar Jail when he got stuck in the drain adjoining jail number 8 during his escape bid.
This was at about 7 a.m. on Saturday. For the next 11 hours, no one in jail number 7 realised that Faizan was missing.
"I fled from your jail," Faizan, one of the two inmates who had escaped from the high security jail, had to literally plead with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel to rescue him from the drain.
He had injured his leg while jumping over a 24-feet wall. His fellow inmate, Javed, 18, had already managed to cross the drain and fled by jumping over the outer wall of the prison.
Javed's movement was being tracked, too, and a Delhi Police officer told IANS that his mobile phone had been tracked to Uttar Pradesh.
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"He is somewhere in Gonda district in Uttar Pradesh as his mobile phone tracking shows. He will be arrested soon."
Initially, the ITBP officials had ignored Faizan's call thinking that it was a prank. Later, on identifying him as an inmate from his jail dress, they alerted other security staff.
A Delhi Police official, who was part of Faizan's interrogation team, told IANS: "Faizan's whole body was covered with mud when he was caught by the Tihar Jail security personnel around 7 a.m. on June 27."
"The authorities of jail number 7 could confirm that two of their inmates managed to flee from their custody after the evening roll call when Faizan and Javed alias Rinku were found missing," said the official on condition of anonymity.
According to the official, the Tihar authorities then lodged a complaint at Hari Nagar police station that two of their inmates had fled from their jail.
"In the complaint, the Tihar authorities informed police that one of the inmates was caught by jail security personnel, but another managed to flee," the official said.
Faizan, who was lodged in jail on June 24 on charges of robbery, reportedly told police that he and Javed had fled from their barrack after morning roll call. Javed, a resident of Madanpur Khadar in south Delhi, was brought to jail on June 2 on the charge of theft.
A resident of Deoli in south Delhi, Faizan was not aware of the exact timing of his escape from his barrack, but he said that it was about 5 a.m., said the official.
One of them stepped on the other's shoulder and managed to scale the 12-feet wall of jail number 7.
"After crossing jail number 7 there was a road. They crossed it and jumped into jail number 8 by climbing its 24-feet high wall. To cross this wall, they first climbed on the debris piled by PWD near it. After which one of them got on to the other's shoulder and reached the top of the wall. One then pulled the other with the help of a towel," the official said.
It was while jumping off this 24-feet high wall that Faizan injured his leg.
"Both the inmates then walked for some time along the same wall and somehow managed to dodge a security personnel on a watch tower. As this wall closes on itself, they breached it at a weak point using stones to escape," said the official.
"After breaching the wall, they emerged on the outer reaches of Tihar complex where they found another 8-feet-high wall. They scaled it and jumped into the drain. Javed crossed the drain and fled after jumping the outer wall of Tihar, but Faizan could not cross it because of his injured leg," said the official.
The official said that both the accused took about two hours in fleeing from the jail premises.
(Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.s@ians.in)