One of the escaped prisoners was serving a life term for murder.
A prison in Haridwar staged the Ramlila on Friday evening to impart a lesson to its inmates on the victory of good over evil, only to see evil prevail when two prisoners playing the part of 'vaanars' (monkeys in Lord Ram's army) used the event to stage a jailbreak.
One of the prisoners was serving a life term for murder while the other was an undertrial in a kidnapping case. Six jail officials have been suspended.
A senior police official said the Ramlila had been organised at the Haridwar district jail on Friday evening - ahead of Dussehra on Saturday - and Pramod, who was serving a life term for murder, and Ramkumar, facing trial for kidnapping and extortion, were among the prisoners who were taking part. The two men were acting as two of the monkeys in Lord Ram's army who helped defeat Ravana.
As the jail officials and guards got engrossed in the Ramlila, Pramod and Ramkumar slipped away from the stage and went to a construction site in the prison compound, where a ladder was lying unattended. They propped up the ladder against a compound wall to scale it and escape.
A fuming Haridwar District Magistrate Karmendra Singh said the officials and the guards at the jail should have been doing their job instead of all of them getting busy with the Ramlila at the same time.
"There has been negligence on the part of the jail administration. The prisoners used a ladder and their clothes to escape. The officials were busy with the Ramlila and so were the guards. A case has been registered and a departmental and magisterial inquiry will be conducted. Just because there is an activity in the jail does not mean security can be compromised," Mr Singh said.
"Even if there was a Ramlila, people in charge of security have to be doing their job. The jail superintendent was on leave and it was the jailer's responsibility to do his duty instead of getting busy with the Ramlila," he added.
Senior Superintendent of Police Pramod Singh Doval said they have launched a search for the escaped prisoners and are also investigating why they were informed about the jailbreak only at 6.30 am on Saturday.
"We will catch the prisoners who escaped soon... we have taken it as a challenge. The jail officials began looking for them in the evening and we were informed only this morning. We are trying to find the reason for the delay," he said.
Jailer Pyare Lal Arya, Deputy Jailer Kunwar Pal Singh, Day Head Warder Premshankar Yadav, Head Warder In-Charge Vijay Pal Singh, Bandirakshak (Jail Warden) In Charge Of the Construction Site Ompal Singh and Head Warder In-Charge And Gatekeeper Nilesh Kumar, have been suspended, according to news agency PTI.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has ordered a detailed investigation. Both prisoners were from Uttar Pradesh.