An explosive and exclusive report in the Indian Express suggests that the police ‘encounter’ of the eight SIMI men could indeed have been an inside job. The story bases its report on the account of an anonymous senior officer who revealed that “the extent of inside help involved in the jailbreak was ‘staggering’”.

A few days back, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bhupinder Singh had said that the SIMI members broke out of the jail because of “inside help” and “lax policing”. However, if the officer’s account is to be believed, it is not just lax policing, in fact some of them might have been involved in helping the eight SIMI man break out from the jail.

A few excerpts of what the officer told the Indian Express were:

“It must have taken elaborate planning over two to three months because it is not possible to make duplicate keys so early and without help from an insider.”

“There are around 50 cameras in the jail, most of which are working, but these three being off together is far too much of a coincidence. They had been turned off.”

“One of the three cameras was brand new, installed a few months ago when Rs 20 lakh had been left over after three other jails in the state had cameras sanctioned for them. We put it in Block B because of the presence of those accused under UAPA [Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act] and terror cases. That, too, was turned off.”

“One theory is that they found a way to heat the end of the toothbrush or stick, and fit it into the lock. But that is very hard because the locks to the barracks are not inbuilt, but dangle on latches outside. To get the groove markings, one would have to turn the lock.”

“There were sharp instruments fashioned from utensils as has been said, but the knife that was found near the drain was a long, standard one. No prisoner is allowed these, and there are meant to be regular checks. The rope itself, fashioned out of bedsheets, must have been 50 feet long. It was trailing on the ground on the other side of the outer 35-feet wall, which they scaled down. They had access to far too much material, and too much work went into this for it to go unseen.”

While the investigation is ongoing, these details shed light on the many questions posed by human rights agencies and social activists who accused the state of carrying out extra-judicial killings.