Andipatti: Of the 17 prisoners who escaped from the Theni prison, 15 had been caught by yesterday morning, and the remaining two prisoners from Madurai have now been apprehended. Following this, the police have caught all the prisoners who escaped from the prison.
On the night of the 26th, 17 people escaped from the Theni district prison after attacking the police personnel there. In the first phase, a person named Praveen Kumar was caught near the prison. Following this, a total of 5 people, including Silambarasan, Rajasekhar, Rajkumar, and the differently-abled prisoner Lingaprasad alias Prasanth, were caught the day before yesterday.
Then, 8 people who had been hiding in the forest area — Karuppasamy, Tarunkumar, Pandichelvam, Sabarinathan, Nishanth, Muthu Ilangovan, Karthik Raja, and Solai Mugileswaran — were caught in the drone search. With a total of 13 people caught, the 5 prisoners who were initially apprehended were produced in court. The 8 people were interrogated at the K. Vilakku police station.
Meanwhile, a special police team arrested Ponmuthu and Regin, who had been hiding in the hilly area, this morning. Following this, the number of people arrested rose to 15.
The remaining two, Thirupathi and Meenakshi Sundaram (both brothers), upon learning that the police were closing in on the place where they were hiding, fled down the hill by a different route.
Later, they attacked a man who came that way on a bike, snatched the vehicle, and escaped. Since these two alone had not been caught, the police intensified the search operation further.
As they escaped on a two-wheeler, vehicle checks have been tightened at the Theni district border. Checks were also intensified in several areas, including K. Vilakku. Meanwhile, the mother of the two prisoners who had not yet been caught has posted a video on social media.
In that video, “Do not file false charges against my two sons. Hand them over to the court without causing them any harm. I do not know where my sons are.
My elder son Meenakshi Sundaram’s wife is eight months pregnant. So my sons should not be harmed in any way,” he said in it.
As reports spread that the fugitives would be shot and captured, this video caused a major stir.
In this situation, these two prisoners were due to surrender at the Koodalur North police station this evening. On receiving the information, the police gathered there. A team led by Uthamapalayam DSP Chandrasekaran and Inspector Parthiban intercepted the two on the way and took them to the K. Vilakku police station.
With this, all 17 escaped prisoners have been caught, bringing relief to the police.
