Prisoner’s bid to move from Mysuru jail to Kerala with prank threat call foiled

A threat call received by a police officer in Kerala on the eve of the Independence Day was found to be a prank by a prisoner at Mysuru central prison in an attempt to move out of the highly restricted life there to a more liberal life in any Kerala prison.

Jayesh Kant, hailing from Dakshina Kannada, made the call to additional deputy commissioner of police of Kollam city in Kerala Jossy Cheriyan on August 14. The caller said that three places will be bombed on August 15 and one of the targets is a judicial officer.

The police swiftly launched a probe and traced that the call originated from Mysuru prison and a police team from Kollam city proceeded to Mysuru and traced the caller.

A sub-inspector who took Jayesh’s statement told DH that his motive seemed to be to move out of the Mysuru prison. He is under trial in a twin murder of his relatives and had earlier made a prison breaking attempt. He had also made bids to end his life and was accused in some other cases also. Hence he is kept in high security cell and allowed to move out only for a short period every day. This seems to have prompted him to make the prank attempt to move out of the prison and he expected that once he is booked for the threat call he might be taken to Kerala for producing before court.

He had spent around five years in hideout in parts of Kollam after the twin murder and was also hoping that he could have a more liberal life in a prison in Kerala. He also had a diary containing contact numbers of many police officers and journalists and he was suspected to have made such prank calls earlier. He also claims to have links with many notorious gangsters.

The additional deputy commissioner said that a case was registered on the basis of the call. If the accused was not having any serious motives, the case might be closed in the due course after further verification.