Aizawl, April 30 -- Sixteen convicts serving their prison term in southern Mizoram's Lunglei jail have walked out of jail over the last four months on the basis of forged court documents, police said on Thursday.

The fraud, which began in January this year, was discovered last week when the Lunglei district sessions court could not find the records for orders to release some inmates, said Lalruatsanga, deputy superintendent at Lunglei District Jail.

The judge filed a police report on April 25, which led to a massive search for the 16 convicts. Ten of them have been arrested, while five more are still on the run. One convict died after being released.

He said the forged documents were so professionally crafted that they bypassed initial...