As the incident of 17 prisoners escaping from the Theni prison in a single day has caused a stir, many are talking about the incident in 1995 when 43 prisoners escaped from Vellore prison by digging a tunnel.
All 17 prisoners who escaped from the Thekkampatti prison in Theni district at midnight on Monday have been caught. While 15 had been caught by this morning, the remaining two who were being searched for also came forward and surrendered on their own.
As the Theni prison incident is being widely discussed, the historical pages about the 1995 escape of prisoners from Vellore prison are being revisited.
That is, in 1995, 43 people, including 4 women from the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) movement in India, escaped from Vellore Central Prison by digging a tunnel.
It is said that all 43 who escaped were members of the LTTE movement, and that nearly 20 of them escaped to their own country.
Vellore Central Prison was operating in the highly secure area now known as Vellore Fort. It still exists today. The prison inmates were confined in the Tipu Hall area.
They dug a tunnel-like passage about 10 feet deep from one of the prison’s toilets, and from there dug a tunnel extending 153 feet to near the moat surrounding Vellore Fort, and escaped.
Not only that, it is also said that they may have jumped into the moat, which is nearly 50 feet deep, and from there all the prisoners may have swum across and escaped. It is also said that 20 of the 43 who escaped fled to Sri Lanka.
This incident, which took place 31 years ago, shook the entire state of Tamil Nadu at the time. An inquiry committee was set up under retired judge Singaravelan.
Not only that, in that year alone, 52 people in total escaped from prisons.
The first incident took place in February 1995 at the Central Prison in Chennai. Nine prisoners, who were also members of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam organization. They had been arrested under the TADA Act and were being held in prison, when they used the blanket provided in prison, turned it into a rope, and escaped from the prison.
Seven of them were arrested again, and the other two are said to have died by suicide after consuming cyanide.
Before this, the escape of 18 people in November 1992 had also been recorded in history.
A report on the 43 prisoners who escaped by digging a tunnel following an incident at the Theni prison in 1995.
