70.4% of prisoners in Nagaland awaiting trial: NCRB report

September 7, 2020 51 Views No Comment

Murder, offences against women account for majority of convictions

Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 6

Majority of prisoners in Nagaland are people who have not yet been pronounced guilty by a court of law or ‘Undertrails,’ according to ‘Prison Statistics in India 2019 released recently by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

According to the report, as of December 31, 2019, 70.4 percent of the total prisoners in Nagaland state were undertrials, 26.5 percent were convicts and 3.1 percent were detenues (persons held in custody; detainees).

A total of 446 inmates—118 convicts, 314 undertrials and 14 detenues were lodged in the 11 prisons in the state.

Out of this, the lone Central Jail in Dimapur lodged 129 inmates, which included 48 male convicts, 68 male undertrials and 13 male detenues.

A total of 317 inmates were lodged in the 10 district jails as of December 31, 2019, out of which 70 were male convicts.

Among the 247 other inmates in the district jails, 242 were male undertrial prisoners, 4 were female undertrials and 1 was a male detenu.

Status of undertrial prisoners
According to the NCRB report, during the same period, a total of 262 undertrial prisoners (UTPs) are being tried for various Offences under Indian Penal Code (IPC).

A total of 118 male undertrials are being tried for ‘Offences affecting the Human Body’ with murder being the most common offence.

The data indicate that a total of 51 UTPs are being tried for murder, 25 for kidnapping and abduction, 18 for attempt to murder and one for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

A total of 23 UTPs are also on trial for offences against women, which include 17 for rape and 6 for assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty.

There was one person undertrial for ‘Offences against Public Tranquility (Riots)’ during the same period.

As per the report, a total of 111 persons are under trial for ‘Offences against Property,’ the most common being ‘thefts’ with 57 cases, followed by 34 extortion cases. Other offences in this category include robbery (5), criminal breach of trust (3), cheating (9), arson (1) and burglary (2).

Another 32 cases were listed under ‘Other IPC Crimes.’

Among undertrial prisoners, a total of 52 are being tried for offences under Special and Local Laws (SLL).

Nature of conviction / Convictions under IPC

As per the report, a total of 112 persons were convicted for ‘Offences under Indian Penal Code (IPC)’ as on December 31, 2019.

Among the offences, the highest number of convictions was for ‘murder’ with 36 convictions followed by a total of 23 offences against women, which included 19 convictions for rape and four convictions for ‘assault on women with intent to outrage her modesty.’

There were four convictions for ‘attempt to murder, three for ‘kidnapping and abduction,’ and one for ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder.’

Three other convictions were categorized as ‘Other IPC crimes.’

A total of 42 convictions were listed for ‘Offences against Property,’ out of which 31 were convicted for thefts, four were for burglary, three for robbery, two dacoity and one conviction was for arson, according to the report.

A total of six offences were convicted under SLL.

Death among prisoners
Nagaland prisons reported four deaths in the year 2019, as per the NCRB report which broadly classified deaths in jails into two categories i.e. natural deaths and unnatural deaths.

Out of the 1,544 natural deaths in Indian prisons, Nagaland recorded two such deaths which were said to be related to heart illness.

Among the unnatural causes of 165 deaths in prisons across the country as on December 31, 2019, one death in Nagaland was categorized as ‘Deaths due to Negligence/Excess by Jail Personnel’ while the other as suicide by hanging.

During the year 2019, a total of 468 persons escaped from lawful custody (Police, Judicial custody) in India and 231 such persons got arrested again.

Highest of such re-arrest in percentage terms took place in Nagaland (100 percent) where one person escaped from prison and was rearrested, followed by Gujarat (68.6 percent), Andhra Pradesh (63.6 percent) and Punjab (60.9 percent).

In : Nagaland