"Resultantly, it was on account of the sheer negligence on the part of the members of the escort party that the UTP (under-trial prisoner) managed to escape and hence, the punishment of dismissal from service warrants no interference," a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul said.
The court dismissed the appeals of head constable Gopal Singh and constables Suresh Chand and Kishan Pal Singh against the judgement of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) upholding their dismissal from the service.
While fourth sacked constable Rohtas Kumar has, so far, not filed an appeal against the judgement of the panel and the fifth policeman retired.
The five cops were entrusted with the task to ensure presence of Mohd Imran alias Shiva, then lodged at Tihar jail, to a court at Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh on May 12, 2008.
Imran, who had earlier also escaped from custody, dodged the escorting policemen during their return from Kanpur and jumped from the running Shram Shakti Express train near Tilak Bridge at 6.25 am on May 13 on the pretext of going to toilet.
Following departmental proceedings, the escorting policemen were sacked. The appellate authority and the CAT upheld the decision.
Dismissing the appeals, the high court said, "In the present case, five police men were deployed for securing safe custody of one criminal who possessed a serious criminal background." (More)
