A crime branch team of Faridabad police on Saturday arrested a man accused of raping a child, days after he was released on bail in a case of mistaken identity, officers said.
Nitesh Pandey, 27, was arrested from his native village of Kalyanpur in Bihar’s Patna. He was wrongly released from Faridabad jail earlier this week instead of another inmate, also called Nitesh (single name), who was accused of trespassing and assault.
Police said that five jail officers have been suspended due to negligence and lapses in this connection.
Undertrial prisoner Pandey, 27, was sent to Faridabad jail in October 2021 for allegedly raping a nine-year-old boy twice.
On May 25 this year, 24-year-old Nitesh was lodged in the jail after being arrested in a case of house-trespass and assault.
The court of Faridabad chief judicial magistrate had granted bail to Nitesh on May 26. However, after bail orders reached the district jail, prison department officials said they instead released Pandey on May 27 due to confusion and impersonation.
Though their addresses were different, both the inmates had the same father’s name: Ravinder.
Yashpal Yadav, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said that both the undertrials were in the same ward and Pandey came to know that Nitesh’s father’s name was the same as his. “The new inmate had also conveyed to Pandey during conversation that he will be granted bail within a day or two,” Yadav said.
“When a jail official announced Nitesh’s name along with his father’s name to instruct him to step out of the ward on the basis of the bail order received from court, Pandey raised his hand to exploit the situation as at that time, the other inmate was somewhere else,” he said.
“Thus, prison officials released him instead of the other inmate who was actually meant to be set free on bail,” Yadav said. The error came to light only when the trespassing Nitesh asked why he hadn’t yet been released, despite the bail order in his name. A hurried records check followed, prompting an emergency security alert—and the stunning realisation that an alleged rapist had walked free instead of a man involved in a petty scuffle. While the child rape accused had vanished, police on May 28 released the alleged trespasser.
The officer said that Pandey had reached New Delhi railway station after being released from the jail and hopped on a train to reach Patna. On Saturday, Faridabad police officers raided the Pandey’s residence in Patna and arrested him. He was later brought to Faridabad and sent to judicial custody, the officer said.
Meanwhile, Faridabad jail superintendent Harinder Singh said that jail assistant Mohan Lal, sub-assistant Pardeep Tyagi, havaldar Rajender Kumar and two wardens, Sanjeev Kumar and Rajeev Kumar, were suspended for negligence and lapses in verification which resulted in the release of a wrong inmate.
“A report on the incident has been sent to the prisons headquarters in Panchkula and an inquiry is going on. The suspended officials will face departmental proceedings,” he added.