Theni jailbreak accused says poor conditions of jail triggered collective escape plan

A week after 17 remand prisoners escaped from the Thekkampatti sub-jail in Tamil Nadu’s Theni district, a video of one of the escapees, Meenakshi Sundaram, has surfaced on social media, claiming that the prisoners planned the escape to bring attention of the alleged torture and poor living conditions inside the jail.In the video recorded before he and his younger brother Thirupathi surrendered to the police on October 28, Sundaram said the prisoners had collectively decided to leave the prison and surrender before a court.“We did not come here to cause any trouble. We made a collective decision to come out and surrender,” Sundaram said in the video. In the video, Sundaram said that 21 inmates escaped the prison, but the police have maintained that only 17 prisoners escaped.He also denied that his brother Thirupathi had any special involvement in planning the escape, alleging that the two brothers were being targeted because the other prisoners had been apprehended.“There is CCTV inside the jail. Please ask them to examine it. It shows all of us sitting together. Even the prison personnel saw us sitting together as a group. It was not just the two of us,” he said.The 17 remand prisoners escaped from the Thekkampatti sub-jail on the night of October 26, allegedly after assaulting prison personnel. Police said the inmates staged a medical emergency by pretending that one of them was having an epileptic seizure, and made a prison warder enter their cell. They allegedly assaulted the warder before escaping. All 17 were captured within approximately two days.In the video, Sundaram alleged the food served to inmates was of poor quality and that he faced harassment after raising complaints with the prison superintendent. "I was afraid that something might happen to me inside the jail. I am ready to tell the entire truth and surrender before the authorities. If I am punished for a mistake I made, the lives of my wife and the child who is about to be born will be ruined. I want to live," he added.Southern Zone Inspector General of Police (IG) Vijendra Bidari dismissed Sundaram's allegations, describing them as fabricated. He said Sundaram had not raised any such complaint when Principal District Judge A Saravanakumar visited the prison for a routine inspection on Monday, October 26.Bidari said remand prisoners were produced before a judicial magistrate every 15 days, giving them the opportunity to raise complaints about prison conditions. The IG also rejected Sundaram's claim that 21 prisoners had escaped, and reiterated that only 17 inmates had fled the jail. Failed protocols and negligence: Inside the Theni jailbreak that shook Tamil Nadu Meanwhile, Sundaram's mother Arumugathammal has sought a judicial inquiry into the alleged assault of her two sons and other inmates once they were captured after the jailbreak.In a representation dated October 31 to Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, she alleged that the police had falsely arrested her sons in theft and ganja cases registered at Chintamani police station in Madurai.According to her petition, the brothers were taken from their house by the police ahead of the Thevar Jayanthi celebrations saying that they could create law and order problems. She alleged that the police subsequently booked them in two false cases, one involving an alleged Rs 500 robbery and another involving possession of 300 grams of ganja.She said Meenakshi Sundaram had earlier been arrested in a ganja case around four years ago and was released on bail in February 2026. He subsequently got married, and his wife is now pregnant. Arumugathammal alleged that her son had complained to prison officials about the poor quality of food, including worms found in meals, alleging that prison warders took some of the items brought by relatives and forcibly collected money from them.According to the petition, when Sundaram raised these issues, the prison officials assaulted him and confined him. She alleged that the treatment made her son fear for his life and escape. She has sought an inquiry by a judge into the circumstances leading to the escape and the alleged ill-treatment inside the prison.Madurai City Police Commissioner S Rajendran had rejected the allegation that the brothers were falsely arrested in criminal cases. He said both were history-sheeters, with Meenakshi Sundaram facing murder cases and Thirupathi being a notorious ganja seller. Meanwhile, the prisons department has temporarily closed the Srivaikundam sub-jail in Thoothukudi district, citing security concerns following the Theni jailbreak. All 25 inmates housed there were shifted overnight on Saturday, October 31, to the Perurani jail in the district. Similar closures are being considered at Uthamapalayam in Theni, Aruppukottai in Virudhunagar, and Sankarankovil in Tenkasi. However, no final decision has been announced on these facilities.The restrictions have also included prison-run commercial establishments across southern Tamil Nadu. In Madurai, the Freedom Bazaar, which sells furniture, garments, and plant saplings made by inmates, has stopped functioning. The Freedom Filling Station on Jail Road, where prisoners worked under supervision, was also closed on October 31. The decision follows an October 21 escape at Puzhal near Chennai, where a convict prisoner assigned to work at its Freedom Bazaar allegedly mingled with customers and escaped.Reacting to the closure, former Law minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader S Regupathy accused the state government of using the jailbreak to shut down prison-run commercial establishments and planning to hand them over to private operators.Regupathy said the previous DMK government had developed prison-run petrol outlets and prison bazaars to provide employment and income to inmates, making them able to support their families."Inmates working through these initiatives earned between Rs 7,500 and Rs 12,000 a month. Prison-run petrol outlets generated approximately Rs 13 crore annually, while prison bazaars had brought a substantial revenue for the government, the prisons department, and the inmates," he said.