Odisha Police arrested one of the two inmates who escaped from the Choudwar Circle Jail in Cuttack during the previous year’s Durga Puja celebrations.
The fugitives, identified as Raja Sahani and Madhukanta Kumar—both hailing from Bihar—managed to flee the high-security facility during the night of October 2–3.
A senior police official said that Kumar was nabbed and arrested while hiding out at an Ashram guest house in Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh.
“A special team from the Commissionerate of Police, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack, arrested Kumar from the guest house of an ashram at Virndavan in Uttar Pradesh after sustained efforts,” police commissioner S Dev Datta Singh told reporters.
Kumar, natively from the Begusarai district of Bihar, was initially lodged at Choudwar jail in connection with a dacoity and murder case.
To track the duo, authorities had dispatched multiple police units to conduct manhunts across several states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Nagaland, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.
During his time as a fugitive, Kumar had assumed the false identity of ‘Basu Pande.’ Following his capture, he was produced before a local court in Uttar Pradesh and is currently being brought to Odisha on transit remand, Singh said.
Odisha Police had announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 for anyone providing credible information on the two prisoners.
Singh assured that the police would soon nab the other fugitive.
