Sheik Muhammad Roshan, a constable attached to the Armed Reserve, Coimbatore city, was arrested on Saturday (June 13, 2026) for aiding the escape of N. Bhimudu Ajithkumar (29), a history-sheeter of Eluru district in Andhra Pradesh, from the prisoner’s ward at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) on June 12.

Special Sub-Inspector Periyasamy, constables Ashok Kumar and Bharathidasan, who guarded the prisoners’ ward at the time of escape, were placed under suspension for negligence in duty.

Ajithkumar was arrested by the Tiruppur City Police in May for an altercation with a taxi driver, whose bank account was used by the former for transactions. They had an altercation when the bank account was frozen by law enforcement agencies for alleged fraudulent transactions. During his remand period in the Coimbatore Central Prison, Ajithkumar was admitted to the prisoners’ ward in CMCH on June 5 due to high blood pressure, the police said.

According to the police, Ajithkumar befriended policeman Roshan and used his mobile phone to reach out to his friend Vijay Kumar and plotted an escape plan. Vijay Kumar transferred ₹20,000 to Roshan through UPI for the help. A day before the escape, Roshan visited the prisoners’ ward and handed over a pair of civil clothes to Ajithkumar, they said.

“Roshan was not on duty at the prisoners’ ward on June 12. As per plan, Ajithkumar went to the toilet of the ward with permission from the policemen on duty around 7.45 p.m. He changed to the civil clothes given by Roshan inside the toilet and walked off, deceiving the attention of the guards,” said a police officer.

Ajithkumar hired an autorickshaw outside CMCH and got down near a five-star hotel at Neelambur. He used the mobile phone of a man to get cash from Vijay Kumar through UPI to pay the autorickshaw driver. Ajithkumar was then picked up by a taxi sent by Vijay Kumar.

The police swung into action after learning about the escape, fielding about 150 policemen across the city. They found out Ajithkumar’s dropping point from the autorickshaw driver, after finding the prisoner hiring his vehicle through visuals from surveillance cameras. The police later identified the registration number of the taxi and traced it to Salem, from where Ajithkumar and Vijay Kumar were arrested, the officer said.

The police examined mobile phones of the policemen who were on duty at the prisoner’s ward from June 5 and found Roshan to have received money from Vijay Kumar.

The Vijayawada police had arrested Ajithkumar early in March for cheating several persons through an online marketplace. He was arrested from Tiruppur in May when he was on the run after escaping from a government hospital at Guntur, where he had been admitted due to ill health, on March 28.