Covid-19 keeps escaped convict out of net -Police are on the lookout along with locals who have used raincoats and gumboots to simulate a PPE

Vivek Chhetri   |   TT   |   Darjeeling   |    06.08.20  : Bhim Rai, the Covid-19 positive murder convict from Rimbick who escaped from an ambulance on Sunday while being taken to a Kalimpong hospital, was spotted thrice by residents of the 3rd Mile on Wednesday but no one dared to touch him because of his infection.

Rai had fled to the Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary, which includes the 3rd Mile area, some 11km from Darjeeling. 

An administrative source said that a couple, residents of Singamari in Darjeeling town, were the first to spot Rai around 4pm on Wednesday. They did not know he was the fugitive. “The elderly man told them that he had come to collect nettles,” said the official. 

A little later, three youths found Rai hiding behind a parked truck. 

“The youths rang the bell of a nearby temple. The convict was surrounded by people, but no one touched him (because of his Covid status). He escaped but was spotted for the third time within a short span,” the official said. “Again, he managed to flee.”

The official added that the convict had realised that people would fear physically apprehending him because of his Covid-positive status. 

“He seems to be hard of hearing,” the official added when asked about any other characteristics of Rai. A youth from 3rd Mile said Rai played hide-and-seek with them. “He would pop up, start running and disappear,” the youth said, adding some men in the area had decided to wear raincoats, gloves and gumboots — to simulate PPE — and try and catch Rai. Police are also on the lookout.

The convict, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his wife in 2011, was granted a month’s parole on July 24 to decongest the Jalpaiguri correctional home in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. He was at home in Rimbick on parole when he contracted Covid.

Useless booty 

A shoe shop was burgled near HD Lama Road in Darjeeling on Tuesday night but thieves got nothing useful. Shop owner S. Kumar said 20 shoes were stolen, but all were one half of a pair, and the other halves of the pairs were kept at another store of his.

(Courtesy & source- THe Telegraph- https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/coronavirus-outbreak-covid-keeps-escaped-convict-out-of-net/cid/1788363)