A Look at Major Jailbreaks in The Past

Bhopal: Eight fugitive Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) terror suspects, who escaped from the high security Bhopal Central Jail, were gunned down at the outskirts of Bhopal, police said on Monday.

This has raised concerns regarding security in the jail premises.

Here is a look at the major jailbreaks:

TIMELINE: MAJOR JAILBREAKS

-On October 31, 2016, eight SIMI activists were killed in an alleged encounter with police on the outskirts of Bhopal hours after they escaped from the high-security Bhopal central jail killing a security guard.

- On June 29, 2015, two Tihar jail undertrials scaled the wall of the ward they were lodged in and then dug a tunnel through the boundary wall to escape from one of the most high-security prisons in the country.

- In the early hours of October 1, 2013, six SIMI operatives, accused of murder, dacoity and communal violence, broke open the ventilator of their barrack in Khandwa jail and scaled the wall to escape.

- In Nov 13, 2005, as many as 137 inmates escaped from Jehanabad jail in Bihar after the Maoist attack on the town.

- In 2002, 8 prisoners, two of them serving life sentences, escaped from Bettiah divisional jail in Bihar’s West Champaran district late on August 10 night after scaling the jail’s wall.

- The January 2001 earthquake in Gujarat was good news for prisoners in Bhuj. They exploited the chaos in the aftermath of the killer quake and some 270 ‘hardened criminals’ escaped from the Bhuj jail, considered the most impregnable in the state.

- In September, 2000, 15 prisoners escaped from the district jail in Mahendargarh, Haryana. They escaped through a ventilator allegedly with official connivance.

- In March 1998, in one of the biggest jailbreaks of India, 78 prisoners escaped from the Nizamabad jail, taking advantage of mob strength and official laxity.

- As many as 43 LTTE cadres escaped from Tipu Mahal inside Vellore Fort on August 15, 1995, after digging a 153-foot-long tunnel.

Punjab

Escapees from inside jail: 03

Escapees from outside jail: 29

Total: 32

Gujarat

Escapees from inside jail: 01

Escapees from outside jail: 21

Total: 22

Maharashtra

Escapees from inside jail: 13

Escapees from outside jail: 05

Total: 18

Rajasthan

Escapees from inside jail: 09

Escapees from outside jail: 09

Total: 18

Karnataka

Escapees from inside jail: 10

Escapees from outside jail: 00

Total: 10

Uttar Pradesh

Escapees from inside jail: 06

Escapees from outside jail: 04

Total: 10

All India

Escapees from inside jail: 89

Escapees from outside jail: 111

Total: 200

(Sources: NCRB, 2015)