2 min readMar 18, 2026 07:00 AM IST
First published on: Mar 18, 2026 at 07:00 AM IST

The substance used by Charles Sobhraj to drug the jail guards before his escape from Tihar Jail has been identified as methaqualone. This is used in the drug Mandrax, according to doctors who treated the guards. The drug, taken in slow doses,at first induces a sense of well-being, but soon induces unconsciousness. Doctors believe the drug was contained in the petha the jail staff had eaten.

Doordarshan hauled up

The Information and Broadcasting Minister, V N Gadgil, asked the Doordarshan authorities to report to him why there was no mention of Charles Sobhraj’s jail-break in the Hindi or English news bulletins.

Clashes in Jalandhar

The entire old city of Jalandhar was placed under curfew following group clashes while the bandh call given by the Shiv Sena evoked a mixed response. A doth merchant was shot dead near Niazian village in Hoshiarpur district. Hindu Shiv Sena activists opened fire at a house in the curfew-bound Batala town.

Massive hunt for Sobhraj

The Delhi Police has apparently made little progress so far in tracing Charles Sobhraj and six others, who escaped along with him from Tihar Jail after drugging seven members of the staff. Interpol has been alerted. In the absence of any official statement from the seven persons who were drugged, the police said it was difficult to make concrete headway. The police, however, strongly suspect that the seven, including Sobhraj, might not have escaped from the country, and for all one knows, not even from the national capital.