Two Nigerian and three Ugandans women have escaped from a government home in Bengaluru, India, where they were held for overstaying their visas.
The women who were lodged in a Women and Child Care Centre on Dr MH Marigowda Road in Bengaluru’s Siddapura, escaped the home at around 2.30 am, on Tuesday, August 17.
It was gathered that the Bengaluru police had earlier arrested 13 women from various African countries and were kept at the centre pending deportation.
Following the violent protest at the JC Road police station on August 2 over the death of a Congolese student in police custody, the Bengaluru police are cracking down on foreign nationals overstaying in the country after their visas expired.
One woman suffered injury when she slipped and fell during the midnight escape. She has been admitted to a state-run hospital.
According to ACP Srinivas Karanth, the accused, three Ugandan nationals and two Nigerian nationals scaled the compound wall and escaped.
“The five women had been detained for overstaying their visas and were in the process of being deported. Around midnight the women tried to escape the reception centre of which one was injured and is now under treatment at Rajiv Gandhi Hospital,” he said.
The police said the women had asked for drinking water; when the staff monitoring them went to fetch it, they escaped by scaling the six-foot-tall compound wall of the centre.
The women who escaped were booked under Section 14 (penalty for violating Visa norms) of the Foreigners Act. “Efforts are underway to trace the other four women who escaped the reception centre,” the police was quoted in the media.