As many as 6,804 Indian citizens are languishing in the jails of 72 countries across the globe. More than 41 per cent of the total inmates are imprisoned in the jails of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) alone. At least 49 Indians have died in prisons of different countries since 2013.

The Information was provided by the Ministry of External Affairs to a Jammu-based RTI activist Raman Sharma in response to his online RTI application submitted to the ministry last month.

According to the data available, the highest number of Indian prisoners –1,696 –are in the jails of Saudi Arabia. It is followed by the UAE and Nepal which houses 1,143 and 859 prisoners of Indian origin respectively.

Three other nations that have maximum number of Indians in their jails are Kuwait with 434, Malaysia and United Kingdom with 356 prisoners each.

There are 230 Indians imprisoned in Pakistan. USA has jailed188 Indians while as China has imprisoned 161 Indians. France houses 48 Indian jail inmates, Germany 59, Russian Federation six, Sri Lanka 32, Spain 52 andSouth Africa 13.

Bangladesh, Qatar, Singapore, Oman and Bahrain have detained 137, 129, 115, 113 and 107 Indians respectively. Countries having least number of Indian prisoners are Japan with seven, Denmark eight, Kenya five, Egypt three, Portugal four, and Uzbekistan, Armenia, Fiji, Georgia, Hungary, Malta, Niger and Senegal one Indian each in their jails.

"Indian prisoners lodged in foreign jails for crimes such as violation of immigration/visa rules such as overstay and illegal entry, non-possession of valid travel documents, economic offences, violation of employment contracts, working without any visa/permit", the RTI reply says.

The reply also cites consumption of alcohol as a reason for arrest of Indian nationals in such countries which have prohibition of alcohol.

Some Indians are also jailed for grave offenses like drug trafficking, theft and murder.

The ministry has denied giving gender based numbers of inmates lodged in different foreign jails. The MEA has advised the RTI activist to approach respective Indian missions of different countries to get this information as they are designated public authorities.