A 36-year-old prisoner, involved in several criminal cases including of rape, murder and kidnapping, escaped from the central jail on the city's outskirts early Sunday, a senior police official said.

"We learnt that Jaishankar escaped from the jail by climbing two 15-feet inner walls and the 30-feet outer wall between 2 and 4 a.m.," Karnataka's Inspector General of Prisons (IGP) K.V. Gagandeep told reporters here.

The IGP has suspended three wardens, two jailors and six security guards who were on duty then and ordered an inquiry into the daring jailbreak.

The incident came to light when Jaishankar did not turn up for morning roll-call and was found missing from his cell.

"The accused was lodged in a separate barrack as he was under treatment for an ailment. He used clothes and nylon ropes to climb the walls and also got injured as there were drops of blood outside the outer wall," Gagandeep said.

According to preliminary investigation, Jaishankar even managed to hoodwink a couple of security guards patrolling between the first and third walls by disguising as a policeman and pretending to be part of the prison staff.

"We are investigating how he got the police dress and fled in darkness as there was a power failure and the electric fence on the top of the outer wall was not functioning due to power cut and sudden rain in the area," Gagandeep said.

The undertrial is facing a number of cases in the state and neighbouring Tamil Nadu after he was arrested in May 2011.

"We have set up a special team to trace the accused as he is carrying Rs.10 lakh cash reward and had a history of escaping from Salem and Coimbatore prisons in Tamil Nadu earlier," Gagandeep said.