Two escapees still at large; TN prison staff armed with rifles after deadly breakout
· India · Indian Express
Of 17 undertrials who escaped from Theni district jail late Monday night, 15 have been recaptured, leaving two still at large. Police used three high-definition drones to apprehend eight more in a forest area on Tuesday evening, with two arrests on Wednesday bringing the total caught to 15. During the escape, one prisoner allegedly feigned an epileptic fit; when a guard entered the cell, inmates attacked him, injuring the guard’s head and enabling 17 prisoners to flee through the main entrance. In response, the Tamil Nadu prisons department has authorised watchtower personnel to carry self-loading rifles and open fire if attacked or to prevent a jailbreak, deploying armed staff to nine central prisons, five women’s special prisons, and 13 district jails. The department has also cancelled staff leave, ordered a return to duty, and issued a standard operating procedure to prevent future escapes, while examining cell-sharing patterns as a potential security gap.
Why it matters
The armed deployment of prison watchtower personnel marks the most visible response yet to a jailbreak that exposed critical weaknesses in prisoner monitoring and housing, directly affecting prison staff safety and inmate management across Tamil Nadu’s facilities.
Read the original report — Indian Express
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