NEW DELHI: A man arrested in a cheating case fled from custody when he was being escorted by a cop for a medical examination. The incident occurred on Thursday at the cyber police station in southeast Delhi. With the courts decreeing that no person — neither an undertrial nor a convict — should be handcuffed, the cops lock hands with the criminals to prevent any misadventure. But this is not a fool-proof method as the escape of the accused proved once again. Abhishek Sinha alias Vicky, 42, a resident of Indirapuram was arrested in a cheating case on October 6. “The accused was being taken for a medical examination around 7pm, but managed to slip away from his police escorts, one of whom had his hands locked with the criminal’s,” said Esha Pandey, DCP (South-East). “A departmental action has been initiated against the escorts, sub-inspector Mohit and constable Ajay, for negligence while on duty.” TOI spoke to police officers about the practice of locking hands while escorting prisoners or arrested individuals instead of using handcuffs. They admitted that this indeed gives the criminals the opportunity to shake off their custodians. “It is not simply about the hand locking exercise,” one officer said. “At times, it so happens that the criminal is heavily built and the cop escorting might not be equal to the person physically. In such cases, it’s fairly easy for the criminal to force his hand out of the cop’s grip and flee. Moreover, when we lock hands with the criminals, we also sweat and have to keep changing hands to be able to keep a firm grip. How tenuous this system is was proved during the Covid months when we had to wear gloves, which did not offer a tight grip of the criminal’s hand.” Taking a criminal for medical examination comes with the risk of an escape attempt. “At the hospital, the criminal does not get priority. Besides having to wait, we also have to move from one floor to another and in the crowded hospitals, this is quite enough to give the criminals the advantage they need to flee,” pointed out one officer. “A separate team of examiners or a specific time slot for criminals to be medically examined would minimise the risk.” Another officer felt the risk could be averted by making the process of producing a criminal in court an online exercise. “For desperate criminals or history sheeters, we do move the court for permission to handcuff them. As for the others, if it could be done during the Covid pandemic, they can well be presented in court virtually. This will save us the trouble of ferrying the criminal to and from and reduces the chances of anyone escaping,” said the officer.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/delhi-man-loosens-cops-grip-to-escape-custody-on-way-to-medical-test/articleshow/94713859.cms