Police have arrested Choudwar Circle Jail Superintendent Sujit Kumar Raul in connection with the escape of two undertrial prisoners from the high-security prison last year.
Officers picked him up from his residence in Bhubaneswar and brought him in for questioning in a case that has already cost careers, triggered a war of complaints inside the jail administration, and reached both the Orissa High Court and the Supreme Court.
The escape took place on the night of October 2, 2025. Undertrial prisoners Raja Sahani and Madhukant Kumar, both from Bihar, cut the iron rods of their cells, slipped through the gaps and jumped two prison walls while Durga Puja festivities were under way inside the jail. A special police team was formed to hunt them down. The breakout immediately raised questions about security arrangements and the role of senior officers at one of Odisha’s most fortified prisons.
The then jailer, Santosini Das, was transferred after departmental action. She later turned complainant against Raul. In her complaint, she alleged that her signature was forged in the jail’s minute book after the prisoners fled. She also accused officials of tampering with the gate in-out register for October 1, 2 and 3 so that records would show Raul present on duty when, she claimed, responsibility was being shifted onto others.
Police treated the minute book as a key document. Investigating officers issued repeated notices and reminders seeking its production. Raul moved the Orissa HC for anticipatory bail. The court first granted him interim protection, then on August 29 rejected the bail plea and withdrew that protection. The Supreme Court later also rejected his anticipatory bail application, clearing the way for his arrest.
The case is no longer only about two men climbing walls. It is about what happened to the paper trail after they vanished: who signed what, who was inside the jail that night, and whether official records were rewritten to protect one officer and expose another. Those questions now sit with the police, not the prison register.
