Ten prisoners escape from court in Bhopal

However, one of the prisoners, who also tried to escape was caught by a policeman after his colleague raised an alarm.

The prisoners were brought to the court for hearing and lodged in court's lock-up when they managed to dig a hole in bathroom wall of the lock-up and escaped, police said, adding that how did they manage to dig a hole in the wall was not yet clear.

The escaped prisoners were identified as Amit, Kailash, Bablu, Badshah, Vijay, Sharif, Irfan, Anwar, Ranveer and Arif Ali, they said.

Soon after the incident heavy police force reached the district court and a hunt was launched to nab the escaped prisoners.

Meanwhile, District Bar Association Secretary Indrajeet Singh Rajput, alleging police's lax attitude in the incident, said he had been asking the top police officials to strengthen security in the district court's premises and setting up a police chowki near the court for a long time but to no avail.

He said that it was surprising that the prisoners were able to dug a hole in the wall of the court building which was constructed a few years ago.