The Patna High Court on Monday directed the Centre and the Bihar government to submit detailed reports by January 30 on the naxalite attack on Jehanabad jail on November 13 and action initiated after the incident.

A division bench, comprising Chief Justice J N Bhatt and Justice R N Prasad, sought reports from the two governments on Operation Jailbreak by Communist Party of India (Maoist) activists on the night of November 13 at Jehanabad, in which nine persons were killed and over 380 inmates escaped.

The order came on a public interest litigation by Peoples Watch, a non-governmental organisation, which claimed that the administration failed to prevent the incident, despite prior intelligence inputs and sought the court's directive for fool-proof security in jails to avoid recurrence of such incidents.

The Bench specifically sought information from the Union government about the timing of intelligence inputs provided to the state government about naxalites' movement in Jehanabad on the fateful day.

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From the state government, the court sought a report on action taken after the incident, giving such information as to how many escapees returned to the prison and how many still remain at large, besides steps taken to strengthen jail security.

The escapees included many CPI (Maoist) activists and those belonging to outlawed Ranvir Sena, a private militia of upper-caste landlords.

In response to the district administration's appeal, many inmates had returned to the jail on their own, some surrendered in courts and a few others were arrested.

But nearly 120 of them, including the mastermind of the operation and self-styled zonal commander of the outfit, Ajay Kanu, remain at large.

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