Aizawl: Police have launched a manhunt after a life convict serving a sentence for murder and rape escaped from the central jail at Tanhril in Aizawl on Friday while doing outdoor work on the prison premises.The escaped prisoner has been identified as Zothanpuia, a native of Manipur. Police sources said the incident occurred at 11.30am on Friday.Officials said 16 convicted prisoners were assigned to clear vegetation and carry out maintenance work along the roadside inside the jail compound when Zothanpuia fled from the work site. The escape was noticed soon after, prompting a search by prison staff and police.Zothanpuia has been lodged in the central jail since 2011 after being convicted in a murder and rape case and sentenced to life imprisonment. Efforts are on to trace and arrest him, officials said.The escape comes amid repeated jailbreaks in the state. The Mizoram govt informed the Assembly last year that 56 prisoners escaped from various jails between 2022 and Aug 2024, with several still absconding.Official data show Mizoram’s prisons are operating beyond their sanctioned capacity. The state’s 10 jails house 1,823 inmates against a sanctioned capacity of 1,526 — an excess of 297 prisoners.Of the total inmates, 1,608 are men and 202 are women. The remaining 13 are children staying with their incarcerated mothers.The central jail at Tanhril is the most overcrowded, with 879 inmates against its authorised capacity of 510. Champhai District Jail is the second most congested, with 216 inmates lodged in a facility designed to accommodate 105.
