Odisha prison official arrested for forging records in Choudwar jailbreak case

A senior official of the Choudwar jail in Odisha's Cuttack district has been arrested for allegedly manipulating prison records to pin the blame for a 2025 jailbreak on a former jailor, police said.

Sujit Kumar Roul, the senior superintendent of the prison, was taken into custody on Sunday evening. He faces charges of forgery committed for cheating and to harm someone's reputation, along with forgery of official records.

The arrest followed a complaint by Santoshini Dash, the jailor who was transferred weeks after two undertrial prisoners escaped from the high-security facility. Dash alleged that Roul forged her signature in official records to make it appear that the breakout was her fault.

Cuttack deputy commissioner of police Rishikesh Khilari said the Orissa high court had earlier rejected Roul's anticipatory bail plea. The court had granted him interim protection in March, but declined to extend it.

The escape

On October 3, 2025, Raja Sahani and Chandrakant Kumar, both residents of Bihar facing charges of murder and loot, escaped by scaling the prison's boundary wall. The breakout occurred hours after Dussehra celebrations were held on the premises. The two were tracked down and arrested months later from outside Odisha.

Dash was transferred for dereliction of duty over a week after the incident. She lodged an FIR against Roul on January 17, prompting police to register a case and investigate the alleged manipulation of the jail's minute book and entry-exit registers.

In her complaint, Dash said the official in-out register had been tampered with to falsely show Roul's continuous presence inside the prison. A police probe found that he had visited the jail only briefly on the evening of October 1 and the morning of October 2. She also accused him of forging her signature to suggest that she had been assigned charge while he was away on personal work on October 2.

Dash further alleged that she was being pressured to withdraw her complaint.

According to police, Roul did not appear for questioning or cooperate with investigators who sought all prison records. On August 17, he filed a complaint claiming the jail's minute book had gone missing.

Investigators said the probe is ongoing and more officials may be questioned if required. On Monday, a day after Roul's arrest, director of prisons Susanta Nath visited the Choudwar jail, though the reason for the visit was not immediately clear.