Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Brahmapur, May 27:

In a shocking incident, a group of 26 inmates of a juvenile home in Brahmapur in Odisha escaped after launching a murderous assault with sharp weapons on four members of the staff including the superintendent on Monday evening.

While the police later managed to arrest five of the juvenile offenders, efforts are on to nab the remaining accused till reports last came in.

file pic of a juvenile home file pic of a juvenile home

The four seriously injured staff—Sanjay Mohanty (Superintendent), two guards Gangadhar Das and Pramod Kumar Acharya and Kamakhya Prasad Pati (caretaker)— have been admitted to the MKCG Medical College and Hospital here.

According to reports, Mohanty and Pati were watching the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the former’s office at the Juvenile Home in the evening hours. The local police were posted on duty at the two processions led by Chikiti MLA and Women and Child Development minister Usha Devi and Gopalpur MLA and Higher Education minister Pradip Kumar Panigrahi in the city.

At 6 PM, the two guards asked the juvenile inmates to move inside the lock-up. However, about 12-13 inmates defied them and marched instead towards the superintendent’s chamber. All of a sudden, four of them attacked Mohanty with wooden sticks and ransacked his chamber.

Though the two guards managed to push these inmates out of the chamber and locked up the door from inside, the rampaging inmates barged into the chamber after breaking open the door.

One of the two inmates, who had earlier escaped from the premises after attacking the superintendent, slashed Mohanty and Gangadhar with a kitchen knife while the rest smashed furniture and property in the chamber.

Later, these two inmates forced the guards to open the main gate and asked all inmates to escape.

However, one of the injured guards, Pramod, managed to reach the Lanjipalli Outpost and informed the police about the incident.

Following information, a team of armed police led by Brahmapur SP Anirudh Singh rushed to the spot.

"They had also made similar attacks on the staff a number of times in the past," care-taker K.P. Pati said.

"They attacked us so that they could escape. I do not think there was any other reason behind this incident," he said.

The juvenile home has 84 juveniles implicated in various cases, including rape, murder, and dacoity, he said.

Five of the escaped inmates were later nabbed. Efforts are on to locate other runaway delinquents, he said.