New Delhi: Over 8400 Indian prisoners including under-trials are currently lodged in foreign jails, MoS, External Affairs V Muraleedharan informed the Lok Sabha on Friday. He was responding to a question raised by MP Rahul Kaswan on whether most of the inmates of Indian origin imprisoned abroad have been lodged in jails in Gulf countries.
"As per the information available with the Ministry, the number of Indian prisoners, including under-trials, in foreign jails at present is 8441, out of which 4,389 are lodged in jails of Gulf countries (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman," said the MoS.
Also Read:Over 16 lakh people renounce Indian citizenship since 2011: Govt data
Asked whether inmates lodged in UAE jails can serve the rest of their sentence in Indian jails as per the agreement signed between India and the United Arab Emirates in 2011, the Union Minister said, "India and UAE have signed an Agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Persons (TSP) under which the Indian nationals lodged in UAE prisons can be transferred to India to serve the remainder of their sentence and vice-versa. The Agreement was signed on 23.11.2011 and is operational".
As to whether the Centre is contemplating any measures to ensure compliance with the agreement reached by the two countries, Muraleedharan stated that the transfer of a sentenced person to his country of nationality under the TSP Agreement is dependent on the completion of various formalities such as prisoner’s willingness to be transferred, consent of the transferring and receiving country, availability of complete documentation necessary for processing the request, clearance from appropriate agencies.
