New Delhi: A member of the banned People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) has escaped from the high security Birsa Munda jail in Ranchi by jumping off a 21-ft high wall with the help of overhanging wires, ThePrint has learnt.
The accused, identified as Sameer Tirkey (42) of Gumla district, was serving life imprisonment in the state’s biggest prison and was found absent Friday morning at the time of attendance. The Jharkhand Police registered a case Friday at Khelgaon Police Station following a complaint by the jail administration.
“Today, on 28.02.2025, during the morning search, the prisoner Sameer Tirkey alias Sakir Tirkey, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, was not found. Thereafter, a lot of search and investigation was conducted inside the prison and outside the prison premises for the said prisoner, but the said prisoner was not found,” the Birsa Munda jail administration submitted in the complaint to the Ranchi Police, a copy of which ThePrint has seen.
Ranchi City Superintendent of Police, Raj Kumar Mehta, said that a four-member team led by the local Deputy Superintendent of Police, Sanjiv Besra, has been formed to investigate Tirkey’s escape.
“He may well have had some idea about the geography and loopholes in the security apparatus of the Birsa Munda jail due to his prolonged stay. A detailed investigation will be conducted to ascertain the loopholes he exploited to escape,” Mehta told ThePrint.
Tirkey, a resident of Gumla district, was a member of the PLFI, a splinter group of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) formed in 2007 in Jharkhand. He was arrested by Gumla district police for the murder of the father of one sub-zonal commander of PLFI in December 2013 suspected of being a police informant, sources in Jharkhand Police told ThePrint.
Tirkey, along with others, was booked under Section 364, 302 both r/w 34 of the IPC & Section 27 of the Arms Act in December 2013.
“He was convicted in the case and that is the only case against him, but he was a cadre of the PLFI,” a Jharkhand Police official told ThePrint. Tirkey was transferred to Birsa Munda jail in July 2018.
After the arrest of founding member and chief Dinesh Gope in May 2023, the NIA declared PLFI responsible for luring unemployed youth by providing them motorbikes, mobile phones and easy money and, after imparting training, equipping them with lethal weapons leading to hundreds of terror incidents and murders in Jharkhand.
(Edited by Sudha V)
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