An undertrial prisoner escaped from custody while being brought to a Court near here for hearing in a murder case.
Mahendra Pal, lodged in Thane Central Jail, was brought to the Vasai Court along with 14 undertrials in a van at around 15.20 pm.
After the van stopped near the Court and undertrials were alighting, Pal gave a jerk to the handcuff and released his hand from within it and fled, Palghar Police PRO Suresh Nirmal said.
The guards accompanying the undertrials chased him but could not nab him, said Nirmal, a DySP-rank officer, quoting from a complaint filed with the Vasai Police.
Pal had been arrested in connection with a case of murder in Virar sometime back and was in judicial custody currently, police said.
A manhunt has been launched for him, they added.
