Constable A B Patel was among five other cops, who were in the van in which the jail inmates were being escorted back to Yerwada prison from Shivajinagar court. The inmates had burnt a shirt with the help of petrol and then forced the van driver to stop after raising a fire-alarm. The moment the van stopped on Mula road, the inmates jumped out of the van and fled in different directions.

The six cops were suspected. Constable Patel was found guilty of a similar offence earlier when a woman pickpocket had given him a slip at Shivajinagar State Transport bus terminus about two months before. A departmental enquiry to this effect was going-on against Patel when again this incident took place.