Chennai/Theni | The Tamil Na du police have recaptured all 17 inmates who escaped from the Theni district prison, nabbing the remaining two fugitives on Wednesday, within 43 hours of the daring jailbreak.

The last two absconding inmates, identified as Meenakshi Sundaram and Thirupathi, were arrested and brought to the Kanavilakku police station for interrogation, police said.

With this, all 17 undertrial prisoners who broke out of the Theni District Jail in Thekkampatti late on October 26 have been caught.

Earlier this morning, police had apprehended two other fugitives, Ponmuthu Selvan and Regin, after intensifying search operations in the Amachiyapuram hilly area near the prison complex.

On Monday night (around 10 pm), the inmates had orchestrated the jailbreak by staging a fake medical emergency, pretending that one of them was suffering an epileptic seizure. When a guard entered their cell to assist, the prisoners overpowered and assaulted him. They subsequently seized the main gate keys, opened the entrance, and fled into nearby forested areas.

The Tamil Nadu police launched a large-scale search operation, deploying 17 special teams, five Special Task Force units, and surveillance drones across the region and neighbouring districts. Thirteen of the fugitives were recaptured by October 27, before the final four were tracked down on Wednesday.