NEW DELHI, India A British national helped alleged “bikini killer” Charles Sobhraj escape a max ‘mum security prison by driving the getaway car and supplying food that was spiked with drugs and given guards, a police official said Friday.
The official, who asked not to be named, said the role of David Richard Hall in the sensational March 16 breakout from New Delhi’s Tihar Jail was disclosed to police interrogators by prison employees charged with aiding Sobhraj.
Hall drove the getaway car to the prison and gave the 41yearold international fugitive food that was then laced with a powerful narcotic and distributed to an assistant superintendent and five gua14s, the official said.
After the staffers fell unconscious, the official said, Sobhraj and four Indian inmates fled the jail and were driven away by Hall.
‘Two other inmates, who took advantage of the situation to walk away from the facility, were recaptured this week.
There was no trace of the remaining fugitives on the sixth day of the massive dragnet.
The police official said Hall had been arrested last December at New Delhi’s Palam Airport for possession of heroin and was jailed at Tihar, where he met Sobhraj. He was released on bail last month and visited the prison several times before the breakout.
Police also were trying to trace another foreigner whom they believe also took part in the escape.
Police flashed a description of Hall, 28, to the international police agency Interpol, which was alerted of Sobhraj’s escape hours after he fled Tihar. His breakout from Tihar was his second from the facility since a 1971 robbery conviction. It was the latest in a string of escapes that span his criminal career, including ‘one from the strongest prison in Greece in 1976.
Sobhraj, a martial arts expert, had served seven years for attempted murder and drug possession’ and faced extradition to Thailand for trial on murder charges carrying the. death penalty.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 28, 1986
