DHAKA: An Indian gangster linked to dozens of murders escaped from police custody after apparently serving food laced with sedatives to officers guarding him.

Police and local media reports said on Thursday.

Vikram Paras, 27, carried out the daring escape as four armed officers were escorting him from the busy Old Delhi Railway Station in the capital early on Wednesday, a local officer said.

Paras, allegedly involved in dozens of cases of murder, extortion and robbery, was being brought back to Delhi by train after a court appearance at Bhatinda in neighbouring Punjab state.

‘He is a desperate contract killer. We have launched an investigation based on the information that we have as of now. We are hopeful of nabbing him soon,’ Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said.

Bhagat said police were still trying to establish exactly what happened, after three of his guards were found unconscious at the railway station while the fourth was found dazed in a nearby street.

‘They were mostly incoherent when a police team reached them,’ railway police officer Surender Singh said.

Paras offered food at the station to the four officers at the station, which his accomplices had contaminated with drugs, before stealing their guns and fleeing, according to the Times of India, reports gulfnews.com.

BDST: 2017 HRS, DEC 26, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor