An interesting set of facts have emerged from the prison statistics report of 2019 recently released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The report revealed that Maharashtra is at the top position when it comes to migrant undertrial prisoners lodged in its jail. These undertrial prisoners are natives of other parts of the country, but are currently lodged in the state's jails for the crime they committed here.
As per the report, the state has 4,675 undertrial prisoners lodged in its jails who are actually natives of other states. In migrant undertrial prisoners, Maharashtra is well ahead of Uttar Pradesh, which has 3,470 prisoners lodged in its jails who are natives of other states. In the tally, Delhi comes third with 3,453 undertrial prisoners who are not from Delhi.
Out of the total 27,091 prisoners lodged in Maharashtra's jails as of 2019, the count of migrant undertrial prisoners stands at over 17 per cent of the total prisoners. Manipur is the state with the least number of undertrial prisoners who are not from the state itself. The state's count of migrant undertrial prisoners is at mere 8.
In the case of migrant convicts, Haryana has reported the maximum number of migrant convicts with 1,353 prisoners. It is followed by Delhi and Maharashtra, which have 855 and 800 convicts who are not from the state, respectively.
"Maharashtra has the highest number of migrant undertrial prisoners due to cities like Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, where the number of migrants are high. The police ability to arrest the accused is also one of the reasons why the state figures are high,” said a senior police officer.
When it comes to the number of foreign prisoners, Maharashtra stands second behind West Bengal (WB). Maharashtra has 466 under trial prisoners who are foreign nationals lodged in its jail, while WB tally is 576. Delhi comes third on the list with 384 foreign national prisoners lodged in its jails.
