New Delhi: The planned killing of gangster Tillu Tajpuriya in the high security Tihar Jail is the second such incident that has occurred within the walls of the prison in less than a month. On 14 April, another gangster Prince Tewatia was murdered, with at least eight stab wounds, in Tihar.
Tajpuriya was accused of ordering the infamous killing of gangster Jitender Gogi inside the Rohini court complex during a hearing in 2021. A couple of months later, investigation revealed that Shekhar Rana alias Sannata, an associate of Sunil alias Tillu Tajpuriya, was killed after a plan was hatched inside the Tihar jail premises.
Housing top convicts — including politicians, gangsters, terrorists and even petty criminals — Tihar Jail in Delhi has a history of such killings and has gained a reputation as a facility where extortion rackets and hits are orchestrated by inmates, often coordinated from behind bars. ThePrint has reported in the past on how there are seven gangs that operate from Tihar itself.
At the time of the killing of Prince Tewatia, ThePrint had reported that Tihar’s security lapses have been a major concern with inmates having access to almost everything, including liquor and phones.
The murder of Congress leader and Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala was allegedly planned inside Tihar.
In 2021, gangster Ankit Gujjar was found dead inside the jail premises. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had 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 the March of 2021, a Muslim convict was accused of plotting to kill two Hindu inmates using mercury in tadka as a payback for the 2020 Delhi riots that had broken out over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Before that, in 2020, there were reports of a Tihar inmate having killed another prisoner to avenge the rape of a relative. The accused had allegedly used an improvised weapon to stab the other inmate.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: ‘Inmates have access to almost everything’ — Tewatia killing puts spotlight on Tihar security lapse