By Sruthisagar Yamunan / R Prince Jebakumar | ENS – CHENNAI

Published: 07th December 2013 07:14 AM

 

Tamil Nadu has the highest number of detenues in prisons, going by the data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) for the year 2012.

This is the second consecutive year that the State has come out on top. However, the number has decreased substantively — the drop being 50 per cent when compared to 2011.

NCRB defines a detenue as a person detained in prison under preventive detention laws, including the Goondas Act.

According to the data, Tamil Nadu had 523 detenues in various prisons at the end of 2012, a few more than Gujarat, which had 519 detenues.

In 2011, the number touched 983, more than 50 per cent higher than the second placed State, which was again Gujarat with 401 detenues.

Among the 523 in detention in Tamil Nadu in 2012, 77 were Muslims. While in Gujarat, 151 of the 519 detenues were Muslims.

Caste-wise d istribution shows that 202 and 210 of the 523 detenues in Tamil Nadu were from the SC and OBC communities, respectively. This again puts Tamil Nadu in number one position as far as SC detainees are concerned, again followed by Gujarat.

The NCRB statistics also states that among the detainees in TN in 2012, 33 were graduates, the highest in the country.

The state had six postgraduates under detention, which is again the highest in the country.

Officials said the data pertains to those in prison under detention laws at the end of data collection and not the total number of persons booked under such laws in a year, which could be higher.  The NCRB data was released in September this year.

 

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