Escaped murder accused nabbed

Coimbatore: Two days after a 30-year-old murder accused managed to escape from the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH), where he was undergoing treatment for psychiatric problems, the city police nabbed him in the early morning hours of Wednesday. It was his second escape from police custody in less than a week that too from CMCH.

A native of Balangir district in Odisha, N Hem Sagar Naik was arrested on April 12 for bludgeoning his friend Kamaldhar Sahu, 30, to death with a stone and hiding his body on April 8. After committing the crime, he had gone into hiding.

A police officer said the two were staying in a garment company quarters in Palladam. Two days after the murder, the Palladam police recovered the decomposed body, which was eaten by stray dogs, near Kavundampalayam in their jurisdiction limits. Subsequently, Naik was arrested and lodged in the Coimbatore Central Prison.

After Naik developed psychiatric problems, prison authorities admitted him to CMCH on August 3. Six days later (on August 9), he managed to escape from the psychiatric ward of the hospital. Doctors alerted the Race Course police, who launched a search and found him near Avinashi road flyover the same day.

Naik was then booked under Section 224 (resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), produced before a judicial magistrate and lodged in prison.

On Sunday evening, he was again admitted to CMCH, from where he managed to escape in the early morning hours of Monday, the official said. “We formed three special teams to trace him. The teams visited his previous workplaces and met his friends. Based on a tip, we arrested him from one of the previous workplaces in the city in the early hours of Wednesday.”

During the investigation, it was revealed that he had taken an auto to his hideout and obtained a few thousands of rupees from his brother in Odisha through Google Pay account of the auto driver. “He also changed hair style to hide his identity,” the official said.