Srinagar, Aug 04: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Wednesday informed the parliament that a total of 3689 prisoners belonging to the Union Territories of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir were lodged in different jails across the country belonging to different religions and castes.

The Minister of State (MoS) MHA, Ajay Kumar Mishra was replying to queries including the latest prison statistics made available by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the data on religion and caste of prisoners published and details thereof.

Responding to the queries in a written reply the MoS said that National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles prison statistics reported to it by States and Union Territories (UTs) and publishes the same in its annual publication ‘Prison Statistics India’.

“It is informed that as of 31 December 2019, the total number of prisoners in the jails of the country was 4,78,600. Out of this, 1,44,125 were convicts and 3,30,487 were undertrial prisoners. This includes 19,913 women prisoners,” the reply reads.

About the figures of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh, it said that a total of 3689 cast-wise prisoners are lodged in jails which include 202 Schedule Cast (SC), 273 Schedule Tribe (ST), Other Backward Class (OBC) 75, and 3139 others.

About the religion-wise prisoners, the MoS said that 3689 inmates are lodged in jails of which 1151 are Hindus, 2312 Muslim, 188 Sikh, 25 Christian, and 13 others belonging to the UT’s of J&K and Ladakh.