Nepal protest: Over 13,500 escape jails, some wanted in India

More than 13,500 inmates have escaped from jails across Nepal within 24 hours of the Gen Z protest movement, turning the uprising into the country’s worst internal security crisis in decades, reported The Times of India. The mass jailbreak has also raised concerns in India, as some fugitives are wanted here or maintain active criminal networks in towns and villages bordering Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Officials said a few escapees have even phoned in, promising to return once the chaos subsides, but most remain untraceable. The emptying of jails was accompanied by arson that destroyed court records, complicating follow-up actions.

Among the escapees are some of Nepal’s most notorious convicts and politically sensitive detainees, including Sanjay ‘Takla’ Sah, a former junior minister convicted in the 2012 Janakpur bomb blast; Uday Shetti, a kidnapper with cross-border operations in the Raxaul-Sitamarhi corridor; suspended deputy PM Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, facing trial in the fake Bhutanese refugee scam; and former home secretary Tek Narayan Pandey.


Sah was also convicted in the 2007 murder of Arun Kumar Singhania, an Indian-origin industrialist and founder of Radio Today in Janakpur. The killing had sparked outrage in Bihar and Jharkhand, where his extended family remains active in the textile and media sectors.

The scale of the jail system’s collapse stunned law enforcement. “As of Thursday morning, 13,572 inmates have escaped across the country,” said DIG Binod Ghimire, spokesperson for Nepal Police. “That includes prisoners convicted of terrorism, organised crime, and corruption. We are trying to verify how many have crossed into India.”

Shetti, who had been transferred to Rasuwa after inciting unrest at Nakkhu jail, escaped on a motorcycle. Intelligence officials in Bihar confirmed that at least three escapees were previously listed in Interpol notices. “Nepal’s prisons once held men who ran extortion rackets in north Bihar and east UP,” said a retired IB officer. “Now they’ve vanished.”

With inputs from ToI