New Delhi: Gangster Prince Tewatia’s murder with at least eight stab wounds at Tihar this Friday puts the spotlight back on security lapses inside South Asia’s largest prison complex. There have been multiple instances of murders, attempted murders, and conspiracies to kill hatched within the walls of the complex over the years.
Speaking to ThePrint, a senior Delhi Police officer said, “Tihar’s security lapses have been a major security concern. Inmates have access to almost everything — liquor, phones. Money transactions are made from inside the prison. All of this makes extortion rackets and hits to be run and ordered by inmates feasible.”
According to sources in Tihar, a scuffle broke out between two gangs around 5.35pm Friday evening. They said it was Tewatia who started the physical fight, describing the deceased gangster as a “hot-headed criminal”. “The altercation lasted for only 2-3 minutes and Tewatia was stabbed multiple times. The other three (injured) are stable. It started with a verbal spat between two groups and abuses were hurled,” a jail official told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity. However, what led to the verbal spat remains unclear.
“We suspect that Tewatia was inebriated at the time of the incident. However, this will only be clear once the autopsy report is received. It is not known what the verbal spat started over,” the official said.
Tewatia, 33, was allegedly stabbed with improvised knives made by sharpening metal spoons and aluminum plates. According to the police, his injuries include stab wounds on chest, lower back, and abdomen. However, senior jail officials claimed that there are daily checks in the barracks and wards and such weapons and even mobile phones are recovered almost regularly inside the premises.
The main suspect in the case, 26-year-old Attaur Rehman alias Atwa, a sharp shooter, who also suffered injuries in the fight, was earlier an associate of Tewatia’s when they both worked for Delhi’s Rohit Chaudhary gang. Rehman is still associated with the gang while Tewatia is suspected to have been associated with the rival Bishnoi-Nandu-Hashim Baba alliance.
“Tewatia had all knowledge of Choudhary’s extortion business. They had a fallout, so his killing undoubtedly would benefit Choudhary’s gang,” a source in the Delhi Police said.
The other injured inmates are Vinay and Bobby. “As per the preliminary findings, there was a quarrel between Prince, and Rehman and Vinay. Bobby was fighting on Prince’s side,” Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Akshat Kaushal said.
Meanwhile, according to sources, only one warder of constable rank was present in Ward no 6 of high security zone of Tihar’s jail no 6, housing around 380 inmates, at the time of the incident. As soon as alarm bells rang, other staffers joined in and took the injured to the hospital, they said.
“It is technically impossible to keep surveillance on each one of them… We hadn’t received any complaints of scuffles between them earlier. Each ward has multiple barracks but during some hours, barracks are opened and inmates can move around in the ward. It was at this time that the crime took place,” the source cited above said.
While sources in the Delhi Police investigating the murder confirmed that this was a case of gang rivalry, senior officers said they are still looking for evidence of “pre-planned conspiracy” for murder. “We are questioning the injured and other witnesses. Investigation is on,” a senior Delhi Police officer told ThePrint.
Murder, conspiracy & extortion
Delhi’s prison complexes have been in controversy over inmates’ access to mobile phones and luxury items, often raising questions about their security. Congress leader and Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala’s murder was allegedly planned inside Tihar. Moreover, gangsters have been known to run their operations from inside the prison complex with the help of high-end mobile apps. Conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar was even accused of running an extortion racket from inside Rohini jail.
The national capital has three prisons — Tihar, Mandoli and Rohini — and they are divided into a total of 16 jails, marked Jail No. 1 to 16. Jails 1-9 are in Tihar, Jail No. 10 is in Rohini, and Jails 11-16 are in Mandoli prison.
In 2020, a Tihar inmate killed another prisoner to avenge the rape of a relative. According to media reports, the accused allegedly used an improvised weapon to stab the other inmate.
In 2021, gangster Ankit Gujjar was found dead inside the jail premises. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) charged former jail deputy superintendent of Tihar, Narendra Meena, with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Gujjar was allegedly beaten to death by jail staffers after he resisted being shifted to another ward. Meena has reportedly also been accused of harassing the gangster for money.
In March 2021, a Muslim convict allegedly planned to kill two Hindu inmates to avenge the 2020 Delhi riots by using mercury in tadka.
The killing of gangster Jitender Gogi, who was shot dead inside the Rohini court complex during a hearing, was also allegedly planned inside Mandoli prison complex by the rival Tillu gang in September 2021. A couple of months later, the probe revealed that Shekhar Rana alias Sannata, an associate of jailed gangster Sunil alias Tillu Tajpuriya, was killed after a plan was hatched inside the Tihar jail premises, said media reports.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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