Teen’s seventh jailbreak foiled in the nick of time

A juvenile delinquent’s record seventh jailbreak from the boys’ observation home was foiled by the authorities in the nick of time last week, a senior officer said.

Veeramani alias Akkasale was lodged at the observation home in southern Bengaluru on burglary charges. An expert in breaking locks, he had escaped from the observation home six times in the past.

His latest arrest had come in 2017 when the Amruthahalli police caught him for stealing Rs 3 lakh worth of valuables from a house. Being a juvenile then, he was sent to the observation home.

Veeramani, who recently turned 18, panicked after learning that he would be sent to the Central Prison at Parappana Agrahara. Going by the prison’s tight security, he realised it would be hard to escape from there.

Determined to run away before he’s moved to the Central Prison, he bribed a home guard, Madhu Nayak, and got five axe blades.

He then started cutting the grilles of a bathroom window. He had finished 90% of the job and was on the verge of fleeing when the authorities caught him red-handed around 11.50 pm on January 4.

The authorities had learnt about Veeramani’s plans from another juvenile during a counselling session. The boy told them that Veeramani had been cutting the grilles every night and that he had offered to help other juveniles escape. Veeramani had threatened the juveniles who refused to take his offer.

Kamalavva Bailura, the superintendent of the observation home, who was part of the team that caught Veeramani, said they had confiscated all the five axe blades.

A complaint has been filed at the Madiwala police station against Veeramani and Nayak under IPC sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 120B (whoever is a party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence punishable) and 224 (resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension).

Speaking to DH, Bailura said they started closely monitoring the juveniles’ behaviour and counselling them following a series of jailbreaks last year. Forty-one juveniles had escaped from the observation home in 2018. Thirteen of them had escaped on July 31 alone. The group had assaulted a guard and snatched the keys. Ten days earlier, eight juveniles had escaped from a washroom.

Presently, 38 juveniles are lodged in the observation home.