The 109-ft-long tunnel which jail officials couldn’t spot

Aneesha Sareen

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Four inmates of the Model Jail, Burail, Chandigarh, made a sensational escape from barrack number 7 of the prison on the intervening night of January 21 and 22 in 2004. Three of the four escapees were identified as Jagtar Singh Hawara, Jagtar Singh Tara and Paramjit Singh Bheora, assassins of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh. The fourth was their cook, a murder accused, Devi Singh.

The digging of tunnel: The four inmates escaped in the wee hours of January 22, 2004, from the high-security jail in their third suspected attempt by digging a 104-ft tunnel beneath three walled security rings.

They dug up a 2.5-ft-wide and 94-ft-long tunnel beneath their cell, then under the barracks and another 14-ft-long tunnel under the third security wall. “After coming out of the tunnel, they possibly crawled a distance of around 50 ft when the electricity of the jail failed twice and there was a blackout,” recalls a jail official.

In the cell, the entry point to the tunnel was covered by a back rest of the chair. The exit point in the fields was covered by a wooden board on which carrots were grown. The entry point of the tunnel was where Hawara used to sleep. The cemented platform had a diameter of 2.5 ft and was 14 ft deep.

Third attempt: It was the third attempt of Beant Singh’s murder accused to escape the jail. They allegedly tried to escape on July 7, 1998, and then in 2002. The police, however, could not prove the charge against them. Sources said it seemed that the terrorists chalked plans for years and then finally started the work at least a year prior to the escape.

How the tunnel failed to catch the eye of police: While the preparation started a year ago, Hawara and Bheora had been putting up resistance against inspectors saying they were Amritdhari Sikhs and entry of others in the cell would defile the area. They kept disposing of mud with water in toilet, bathroom and kitchen. They had the facilities as they were B Class prisoners.

They also put up curtains in front of cupboards. As many as 40 bags full of earth were found hidden behind the curtains. The tunnel was dug up under a road inside the jail and 9-ft-wide foundation of the wall. A weightlifting rod was found in the cell with one side of it having mud indicating it might have been used to dig the tunnel. They crawled in the open for more than 50 ft before scaling a wall. The wall bore foot marks. Two T-shirts were lying there indicating they might have changed their clothes in the open.

The digging went unnoticed: The four used to keep the water tap running round the clock to keep the digging work under wraps. The water was also used to soften the soil in the tunnel. They used turbans as ropes to go inside the tunnel during the digging activity. A bulb and a wire, possibly used while carrying out work at night, were also found from the spot after they escaped. The television was on till 3 am on that night. The exit point of the tunnel was noticed at 7 am. The information about their escape came at 8.15 am.