Mubashir Alam Wani
Srinagar, Dec 03 : In a grim reminder of the growing menace of drug abuse in Jammu & Kashmir, as many as 26 percent of inmates in the Union Territory’s prisons are there for drug -related offences.
The latest data released by J&K Prison department shows that out of 5335 persons languishing in different jails as on October 31, 2024 ,1413 were arrested or detained under “The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985”- the law used to combat narcotics and psychotropic substance abuse in India.
Of these 1413 inmates, 23 are convicts, 1242 are under- trials and 148 are detenues, the data accessed by news agency lays bare.
According to data, 28 females are also among the 1242 under-trials languishing in jails under the NDPS Act-1985.
The age-group wise breakdown of under-trials shows that 277 are in the age group of 19-25, 429 in age-group of 26-35 years, 325 in age-group of 36-45 years, 173 in age-group of 46-60 years and 38 beyond 60 years ago.
As per statistics, all 23 convicts are less than 60 years of age.
Among detenues, 40 are in the age-group of 19-25, 59 in 26-35, 36 in 36 to 45 and 13 in 46-60
