Chaotic scenes unfolded inside the Bilaspur Sessions Court premises in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday after a prisoner arrested in connection with a drug trafficking case managed to give police escorts the slip. The accused had been brought to the court complex for a scheduled hearing. Capitalising on a momentary lapse in vigil, he leaped from the second floor of the court building and fled the premises. Taking swift disciplinary action over the security lapse, authorities placed two police personnel under suspension.
The Feigned Illness and Dramatic Leap
The individual was identified as 32-year-old Chandraveer, a resident of Kullu. Law enforcement personnel had earlier arrested him during an inspection of a passenger bus on the four-lane highway, recovering 12.58 grams of chitta from his possession. On Tuesday morning, a police team transported him from Swarghat to present him before the Bilaspur court. As his turn came to be called inside the courtroom, Chandraveer informed the guards that he was feeling nauseous and needed to vomit. While officers were escorting him toward the washroom, he suddenly bolted, jumped from the second floor, and vanished.
Extensive Manhunt and Aerial Surveillance
The escape triggered an immediate high alert across the surrounding urban perimeter. Police units rapidly set up checkpoints along potential escape corridors, including thoroughfares leading toward the local bus terminal. To locate the fugitive among nearby residential pockets and blind spots, search squads deployed aerial surveillance drones. The coordinated operation continued relentlessly for approximately an hour and a half, cutting off every potential escape route across the locality.
Recaptured Near Drainage Conduit
The manhunt culminated in the Diara sector, where search teams discovered Chandraveer hiding close to a sewage pipeline. Hemmed in by perimeter teams, he was swiftly overpowered and taken back into police custody, bringing his brief bid for freedom to an abrupt end. Following his re-arrest, senior police officers initiated an administrative inquiry into the breach of standard operating procedures and the escort protocols at the court facility.
