A 10-hour manhunt in Gujarat's Vadodara culminated in the arrest of an undertrial prisoner who escaped from police custody at the state-run Sir Sayajirao General Hospital. Govind Rameshbhai Mahonia was in Vadodara Central Jail on serious criminal charges of rape and other charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. Mahonia was transferred to Ward 5 of SSG Hospital due to medical examination and treatment for skin problems and seized the opportunity to escape from his armed escort.
The escape occurred as they were doing their medical work, the local police said. The accused was asked to receive a series of injections and the escorting officers took off his handcuffs at the hospital canteen to give him the second injection at around midday. Mahonia shoved the policeman Jitendra Singh, who was there, and fled the building before security officials could react. The suspect quickly disappeared into the city and managed to breach a nearby multi-story under-construction building and immediately triggered an emergency response from local police.
Raopura Police Station teams rushed to the site immediately in response to the security breach and cordoned off the entire perimeter and went floor-by-floor to investigate the unfinished building. Drone cameras were used to scan the elevated platforms and dark places of the complex and police units used public address systems to say “OK, you surrender” loud and clearly.
But even though the building and surrounding areas were locked down for five hours and the suspect had slipped away from the city, the police did not find him. An official criminal case was registered under Section 262 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at the Raopura Police Station for his escape from lawful custody, which caused a huge push to further probe it.
All this meant that the Vadodara Crime Branch was able to rapidly deal with the security failure and to focus on electronic surveillance and deep intelligence gathering. They reviewed all the closed-circuit television camera footage of the suspect on some of the transit routes and were in close touch with a network of anonymous human informants. This analysis revealed that Mahonia was indeed trying to go to his personal house near Chhani Canal.
With these precise coordinates, Crime Branch officers deployed covert surveillance teams and formed a well-designed dragnet in the area where the fugitive was to be found. The operation culminated at around half-past 10 at night when the fugitive reappeared and officers quickly surrounded and arrested him without any resistance and took him back to the police.
