The guards, Ratan Rathod and Sukhdeo Patil, were escorting an undertrial, Umeshkumar Tiwari (45), back to the prison after he was treated at the hospital for acute pain due to piles on August 8. He was discharged on Saturday.

As the guards handcuffed Tiwari and left the hospital, the latter offered them tea at the hospital's canteen. They went to the canteen and waited for the tea to be served. Rathod went to the toilet but when he returned he found his colleague and the prisoner missing. He was told that both of them had left the canteen after having tea.Rathod lodged a complaint with the Sarkarwada police station. In the evening, Patil was found unconscious near a shop along Gangapur Road. Police are searching for Tiwari, who is absconding with his handcuffs on.

Tiwari is believed to have druggedPatil's tea after which he fled. Tiwari, who is from Barahi near Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, had been arrested in Mumbai for thefts and robberies. He used to drug his victims before stealing their valuables. He was granted judicial custody and shifted to the Nashik jail in February.

HINDU DALITS DEMAND SEPARATE RESERVATIONS: The Dalit Samata Parishad, representing Hindu-Dalits, is demanding separate reservations for themselves, tribals, nomadic, and denotified tribes.

The parishad is asking for eight per cent reservations, waiver of loans up to Rs 10,000, and new schemes for the Hindu Dalits' welfare. The district chief of the parishad, Gopalrao Baste, says his organisation would also demand the renaming of the University of Mumbai after Annabhau Sathe (a writer from the Matang caste).

The parishad, promoted by the Shiv Sena, had undertaken an Asmita Yatra (identity march) from Kalaram Mandir in Nashik (where B R Ambedkar had staged satyagraha to fight for temple entry for Dalits in1930) to Mumbai on October 23, 1997.

The parishad has been promoted to isolate neo-Buddhists from Dalits who have remained in the Hindu fold.