One was found in the bushes behind the prison. Three were caught walking along the road. Another was apprehended while boarding an autorickshaw. Eight more were tracked to a forest area near Tamil Nadu’s Theni town, where drones and more than 300 police personnel joined the search.By Tuesday evening, 13 of the 17 undertrial prisoners who escaped from the Thekkampatti jail in the Theni district were back in custody. An escape that began with a feigned epileptic fit had ended, for most, within a day of leaving through the main gate.Director General of Prisons Sandeep Rai Rathore, who reached the jail and reviewed the operation, confirmed that 13 had been caught and said the remaining four would be apprehended soon. Nine prison staff members, including three head constables, have been suspended.The escape began late on Monday, when one prisoner appeared to suffer an epileptic fit inside a cell. When a guard entered to respond to the apparent medical emergency, the inmates allegedly attacked him. The guard suffered a head injury, and 17 prisoners fled through the main entrance. An escape that began with a feigned epileptic fit had ended, for most, within a day of leaving through the main gate. (Express photo enhanced by AI)The scale of the escape prompted a statewide alert. Seventeen special teams were formed. Police checked vehicles, searched surrounding areas and alerted districts across the border in Kerala. The first recapture came in the early hours.Praveen was found among bushes behind the prison. He had crossed the institution’s boundary but had not travelled far beyond it. Silambarasan, from Thevaram in Theni, was caught walking along a road near Andipatti, about six kilometres from the jail.Rajkumar from Sudararajapuram in Madurai and Raja Sikhanthar from Melamadai in Madurai were apprehended on a village road at Ukkaraipatti, approximately 10 kilometres away. They, too, were walking.Story continues below this adLingaprasad, from Alavanthan near Madurai, was caught while boarding an autorickshaw in a town about six kilometres from the prison. He reported health problems and was taken to a hospital. The accounts of those five recaptures supplied an unglamorous sequel to the overnight escape . (Express photo enhanced by AI)The accounts of those five recaptures supplied an unglamorous sequel to the overnight escape. Bushes, village roads and an autorickshaw. Getting outside had been one problem. Finding somewhere to go was another.By afternoon, police had obtained significant leads from a forest area near Theni. More than 300 personnel were deployed in a combing operation, supported by drones. Eight escapees were subsequently apprehended there.All in their mid-20s, they had briefly exchanged a prison ceiling for the open sky, which turned out to have a police drone in it. An overhead image from the operation, accessed by The Indian Express, shows figures negotiating a narrow, uneven passage between large rocks and thick vegetation. From above, the ground appears broken into small pockets of visibility. A stretch of reddish earth, a rock surface, a person partly obscured by foliage. The scrub that offered cover also made movement difficult to follow from ground level.Story continues below this ad All in their mid-20s, they had briefly exchanged a prison ceiling for the open sky, which turned out to have a police drone in it. (Express photo enhanced by AI)ALSO READ | Now streaming in Tamil Nadu: Stalin’s Breaking Bad jab, TVK’s Money Heist counterA photograph taken after the forest arrests shows the captured group sitting close together beneath low branches, against an earthen and rocky bank. Several are bare-chested; some hold clothing against their bodies. Bare feet rest on the rough ground.Police continued combing the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border areas on Tuesday evening, with Kerala’s border districts alerted. At the prison, officials were examining how an apparent medical emergency had developed into a mass escape.The incident recalled the 1995 breakout in which 43 suspected LTTE militants escaped from a special detention camp inside Vellore Fort through a 153-foot tunnel. At Thekkampatti, the route out was the main gate.The jailbreak also produced a political exchange. Former chief minister M K Stalin declared that, after Breaking Bad, Tamil Nadu had begun Prison Break – a reference to hit TV shows. TVK’s IT wing replied with a watchlist of crime and corruption series – Narcos, Money Heist – alleging that DMK rule had supplied their inspiration.