Feeble signal makes it possible for Nicole Tamang to escape

Nickole Tamang apparently escaped yesterday morning when one of the policemen guarding him stepped away from him to take a cellphone call as the signal was feeble.

CID officers said that a little before 6.30am, Nickole told constable Arabinda Kumbhakar he wanted to go to the toilet attached to the ground floor room of cottage No. 29, where he was being detained.

A few minutes later, the constable — the other on-duty guard had gone out for tea — received a call on his cellphone. But the signal being weak, Kumbhakar stepped out of the room and walked further away where the reception was clearer.

The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader came out of the toilet after some time and, finding the constable busy speaking over the phone in another corner of the cottage, quietly slipped out, the police said.

“It appears that Nickole cleverly guessed from the fading voice of the constable that he was moving away from the room. He grabbed the opportunity to escape,” a police officer said.

Kumbhakar found Nickole’s room empty after he finished his conversation and raised the alarm.

Police records show that Kumbhakar was away from his post between 6.32am and 6.40am, handing Nickole, the prime accused in the Madan Tamang murder case, eight minutes to make his getaway.

The police said Nickole probably slipped out of the back door of the cottage as it is closer to the boundary wall of the cottage. As the cottage was at one corner of the Pintail Village complex, the main compound wall was also nearby. Nickole could have scaled both the walls and escaped. The police said the whole episode would not have taken more than eight to 10 minutes for a fit person.

The police said Nickole had slipped out unchallenged as there were few people around because of incessant rain. Also, few in Pintail Village were aware of Nickole’s presence there.

“Nickole did not break any windows or squeeze out through the skylight,” said P. Nirajnayan, the inspector-general, CID, told The Telegraph today. “He simply walked out of the room as no guards were around. It was a serious lapse on the part of the policemen guarding him.”

“Nickole knows Pintail Village like the back of his hand as the Morcha had occupied it for several months,” an officer said. “He would know the quickest way of escaping from there.”

The police said that around the time Nickole escaped, some people saw a young man in a vest and a pair of shorts — the clothes the Morcha leader was wearing yesterday morning — walking towards Panchnoibusty, a Morcha stronghold 1km from Pintail Village.

“We carried out raids at Panchnoibusty but did not find anybody,” a police officer said. “If he had at all gone there, he must have escaped by now, knowing fully well that we would raid that place.”

The police also carried out searches in various parts of Sukna and Matigara as well.

State home secretary Samar Ghosh said today: “We are trying to re-arrest Nickole Tamang as soon as possible. The borders are being monitored to stop him from escaping.”

Source: The Telegraph