Delhi has second highest parole jumpers in country

Delhi has 167 parole jumpers, the second highest in India after Gujarat. Overcrowding in jails and liberal court policies contribute to the issue.

The national Capital currently has 167 criminals who have jumped parole from 1990 until now — second highest in the list of 36 states and union territories in the country — after Gujarat, which has 1,187 such cases, as per the latest data on the National Prisons Information Portal.

The data shows most parole jumpers are recorded in Tihar so far — over 120 cases. (HT Archive)

The portal is maintained by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. As per the new data, Madhya Pradesh is third on the list, with 108 parole jumpers, followed by 99 in Maharashtra. Data shows Delhi’s neighbouring states — Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab — have reported fewer than 10 parole jumpers each.

Further, the data revealed that Delhi has a total of 19,993 inmates in all prisons while Gujarat has 18,805 inmates. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh has 43,234 and Maharashtra has 40,497 inmates.

Officials said atleast 75% of inmates are undertrials and the remaining convicts.

The data indicates that one in every 120 prisoners in Delhi is a parole jumper while Gujarat reports one parole jumper for every 16 inmates.

A senior Delhi Police officer, on condition of anonymity, at the police headquarters said the portal also shows that Delhi has more parole releases. According to the officer, it is because the courts are liberal and inmates are more aware of their rights.

“While the data is factually maintained by Delhi prisons with our help, we have included names of parole jumpers, people who absconded interim bail and furloughs as well. All parole jumpers are convicts. Since courts allow these releases, some inmates take advantage of parole and never return,” the officer said.

He added that they have been working on the issue this year. “More than 120 parole jumpers and interim bail absconders were held from January to October this year. The fact that neighbouring states and some other states have lesser parole jumpers is because they are more conviction-oriented and hardly allow parole releases. In Delhi, the high court is more liberal in handling such cases.”

While the portal has numbers on cases as old as 1994-2001, it shows most parole jumpers are recorded in Tihar so far — over 120 cases.

Meanwhile, the latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Prison Statistics for 2023, released last week, show that Delhi jails have the highest occupancy rate in the country.

The Capital’s 14 central jails — highest number for any state or Union territory — are holding as many as 19,993 inmates against a capacity of 10,026. In comparison, Uttar Pradesh’s jails hold 98,849 prisoners against a holding capacity of 65,866, while Madhya Pradesh houses 45,543 inmates in facilities meant for 29,875, as per the NCRB 2023 data.

Overcrowding puts additional pressure on prison staff, rehabilitation systems, and monitoring mechanisms, and even affects the health of inmates.

The NCRB data also shows year-wise parole absconders. In 2023, Gujarat had again reported the highest number of parole jumpers, at 109, followed by 34 in Madhya Pradesh and 30 in Punjab. Delhi had only eight parole absconders that year.

Police said the gap between numbers by the prison and NCRB exists because the latter has a year-wise absconders’ list while prison data is a consolidated report.

Further, Delhi has 14 central jails and no district prisons while states such as Rajasthan have 155 jails — including both central and district — Tamil Nadu has 142 and Madhya Pradesh 132.