Two inmates escaped from Chennai’s high-security Puzhal Central Prison within 24 hours in separate incidents, police said on Wednesday, rattling a facility that already faced questions after a 2023 breach and putting Tamil Nadu’s prison administration under immediate review.
The first disappearance involved 21-year-old Sudeep Bogati, a Nepali national held as an undertrial on theft charges after his arrest in August. Warders noticed he was missing during the routine evening head count on Tuesday. A search through the night failed to locate him inside the compound, and prison staff filed a complaint with Puzhal police on Wednesday morning.
Wall climb and a bazaar walk-off
Local media reported that Bogati may have used wires near a watchtower and a lungi left by another inmate to scale the roughly 23-foot perimeter wall. Prison officials told News Today he had been assigned cleaning duties before complaining of an ear ailment and being sent toward the hospital block.
Before dawn on Wednesday, a second escape unfolded. Suresh, a 41-year-old convict from Thirumangalam serving time on a 2021 conviction under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, was assigned work at a prison-operated bazaar just outside the main jail. Police said he walked away around 7 a.m. while guards were distracted. Mirror Now reported he disappeared closer to 10:30 a.m. while attending customers; either timeline left investigators asking how a POCSO offender retained outdoor privileges.
Pressure on a flagship jail
Puzhal is among Tamil Nadu’s largest correctional complexes and houses foreign nationals in a dedicated block. The back-to-back breaches echo a December 2023 incident in which a female inmate escaped the women’s wing by blending into visiting crowds, according to Mirror Now’s chronology.
NDTV reported that Bogati had been living in Chennai’s Padi area before his arrest. Police are reviewing CCTV footage across the campus and questioning warders about tower coverage and bazaar supervision. Families of the missing Nepali prisoner, based in Chennai, may be interviewed as part of the manhunt.
What happens next
Neither inmate had been recaptured as of Wednesday evening local time in published accounts. Tamil Nadu’s prison department has not released a public timeline for the inquiry, but opposition lawmakers typically use twin escapes to demand staffing audits and technology upgrades at perimeter posts.
For residents near Puzhal, the immediate concern is enforcement: special teams were combing city neighborhoods and highway checkpoints. For the justice system, the episode revives a familiar Indian debate—whether “good conduct” work programs outside cell blocks are worth the risk when staffing is thin and cameras do not cover every blind spot.
Until Suresh and Bogati are back in custody, Chennai police will treat the pair as active fugitives: one convicted of child sexual abuse, the other an undertrial who may already be far from the wall he is accused of climbing.