Six teenagers escape from observation home

He immediately informed the Observation Home in-charge, Govind Kantharia, about the incident.

Kantharia rushed to the spot and saw that the inmates had sawed the grill off with some sharp instrument and had escaped. The boys are 17 years old and are residents of Limbayat, Udhna, Sachin and Pandesara. They had been caught by the police for criminal offences like theft, liquor trafficking, robbery, picketing and murder.

Kantharia sent his teams to the residents of the boys and found that they had not visited their homes. He then contacted the Umra police station and lodged a complaint against the six on Friday.

He said: “We had made two dormitories for the children staying at our premises. On the ground floor, we keep those children who have been caught for criminal offences and on the first floor we keep those who have been picked up under child protection acts.”

He added: “We have found that they had hatched the escape plot in the last couple of days, as the date of their nearing majority was coming closer. They might have learnt that they would be sent to the sub-jail very soon and escaped because of that.”

Inspector R S Patel of Umra police said: “We suspect that they might have gone to Ahmedabad or Mumbai. All the absconders are from other states. We have informed the local police at their native places to provide us with information on them. Besides, we have also informed the Railway Police staff at Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Valsad and Vapi to keep watch on the Railway platforms for these absconders.”