ESCORTING POLICE FAILED TO ALERT THE LOCAL POLICE ABOUT MICHAEL’S ESCAPE

PANJIM: The Bicholim police personnel, who were escorting gangster Michael Fernandes, failed to alert the local police for almost an hour about Michael's escape, police sources revealed. This lapse gave time to the accused to escape.

"One hour was wasted by the policemen, who tried to first search for the accused. But it is enough for Michael to escape from Bambolim area. We had launched a massive manhunt on Friday and continued till Saturday afternoon but in vain. If he was hiding in Bambolim area, we could have caught him by now," said a senior police official, monitoring the search.

Fernandes, who was handcuffed along with his accomplice Deepak Kerkar, fled from the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour complex at Bambolim on Friday.

Police said that Kerkar managed to break the handcuff and separated from Fernandes. Kerkar was nabbed near Goa University within hours of his escape.

The police had sought permission to handcuff Fernandes as he was in the habit of running away. But despite the handcuff, he managed to give police the slip.

The duo was arrested by the police on April 11 after a hot chase in the jungles of Khola at Canacona. A noted criminal operating in Goa, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka, Fernandes was involved in more than 26 cases before his escape from judicial custody on February 22, 2011.

Kerkar had helped Fernandes escape from judicial custody. They hatched the plan in the court and accordingly Kerkar had followed a police van carrying Fernandes, on a motorcycle.  Fernandes then jumped off the vehicle when it slowed down at Chicalim slope.

Police said that after he escaped from custody, he had committed robbery in Canacona where he had robbed a foreigner, who was travelling by auto rickshaw, off her belongings by showing a knife.  A week before his arrest, Michael and his gang members also robbed a couple in Kankavli off their gold ornaments, cash and car after tying them up and locking them in a room.