Convict serving life term flees Yerawada open prison to meet his ailing mom, nabbed

Pune: A convict serving a life sentence for a 2017 murder escaped from Yerawada open prison on Tuesday afternoon, only to be arrested the same evening from his home in Kasewadi. Police said he fled in order to visit his critically ill mother.

“We arrested the convict, Janardhan Adsule, from his residence. His mother is in critical condition and he wanted to see her. He had applied for leave but instead of waiting for it to be sanctioned, he escaped from the prison,” senior inspector Anjum Bagwan of the Yerawada police said.

According to the police, Adsule was working in a prison workshop where inmates manufacture electronic switches. “After working for a couple of hours, he simply walked out sometime between 2pm and 6pm,” Bagwan said. The escape was discovered during the routine headcount when prison authorities failed to locate him among the inmates.

This is the second such escape from the Yerawada open prison within a week, raising concerns over the supervision of convicts in such facilities. On May 8, another inmate, Santosh Laxman Bhingare of Sangli, had fled the prison. Police later tracked him down in Sangli and brought him back to Pune. “He had left the prison to see his daughter, who was supposed to get engaged,” Bagwan added.

On April 18, yet another life convict, Sameer Shaikh from Chunabhatti in Mumbai, escaped from the same facility. Convicted by a Mumbai metropolitan court, he remains absconding, and police are continuing their search for him.