Director general of police (Prisons) Sowmya Mishra said that of the 213 convicts, 178 were male and 35 were female inmates. “While 61 of them were from Cherlapalli Central Prison and 27 from Chanchalguda prison in Hyderabad, the others are from various other jails including Warangal, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Sangareddy, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Khammam, Karimnagar and Asifabad,” she said.

The DGP said they were convicted by the courts of various crimes including murder and violence. “Based on their behavior, jail term period, and gravity of the cases the government identified and ordered release of 213 prisoners,” she said.

The decision to release the prisoners was made after their family members made representations during the ‘Praja Palana’ programme held in January this year by the state government to address people’s grievances.

“Based on their representations, chief minister A Revanth Reddy constituted a high-level official committee to examine them. As per the Centre’s guidelines on granting remission to life convicts, the committee prepared a list of such prisoners. It was sent to the cabinet for approval. The governor then approved the list. After that, the home secretary issued orders,” she said.

Mishra said as part of the rehabilitation programme for these released convicts, the prisons department conducted a job mela at Cherlapalli central prison for them. “At least 70 prisoners were selected for jobs in ’My Nation Fuel Stations’ run by the department. Another eight women were provided with sewing machines so that they could take up tailoring vocation and earn a livelihood,” she said.