Prisoner who made botched escape bid took prisons guards uniform from a drawer

The prisoner who escaped from Welikada Prison on Sunday morning and was re-arrested on the same day has told prison officers that he took the uniform from a desk drawer of a guard.

The prisons department has launched an inquiry of the escape of the prisoner. The Prisons Department and Railway Security Division said on Sunday that the prisoner who was sentenced to death for murder escaped from Welikada Prison Sunday (25) morning and was re-arrested.

He escaped wearing the uniform of a Welikada prison guard and was arrested while boarding a train at the Maradana Railway Station. When this prisoner was taken out of the cell where he was detained to participate in a religious programme at around 09.30 a.m. he had escaped from the place dressed in a uniform similar to that of a prison guard.

The prisoner escaped from the main gate of the Welikada prison.

Prison officials were suspicious of this man’s behaviour and chased him to the Maradana railway station. He was arrested as he had boarded a train there.

The Prison Media Office stated that the prisoner had been sentenced to death by the Gampaha High Court on 06.03.2015 for murder. The Prisons Media Spokesman said that this prisoner was a 42-year-old resident of Ihala Kotuwella.