New Delhi | Gangster Tillu Tajpuriya was killed early Tuesday inside Tihar jail allegedly by four members of the rival Gogi gang who stabbed him "92 times" with an improvised weapon, in second such killing in less than a month in the high-security prison.
Tajpuriya, an accused in the 2021 Rohini court shootout in which gangster Jitender Gogi was killed, was taken to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in an unconscious state where he was declared dead, police said.
The assailants - Deepak alias Titar, Yogesh alias Tunda, Rajesh and Riyaz Khan - used bed sheets to climb down to Tajpuriya's ground-floor ward from the first floor around 6.15 am and attacked him, they said.
Tajpuriya was lodged in Tihar jail since 2016 and was facing a threat to his life after the Rohini court shootout.
In an unverified social media post, gangster Satinder Singh Brar alias Goldy Brar, who is said to be hiding in Canada, claimed the attack on Tajpuriya was for revenge.
Prison officials said they suspect that the attackers had cut the two grilles installed on the first floor and placed them there to avoid suspicion. Before the attack, they only had to remove the grilles and climb down. The attack happened when the cells were opened for counting of the inmates, they said.
When Tajpuriya saw the attackers, he ran to the cell of a fellow inmate, named Rohit, who tried to save him by closing the gate of his cell. However, the cell could not be locked from inside and the assailants barged into the cell.
In this process, Rohit too got injured, police officials said, adding that the deceased received "92 stab" injuries, citing a preliminary postmortem report.
The whole incident which is suspected to have been planned happened within two minutes, they added.
Staff members and security personnel immediately rushed to the spot and caught the four assailants. They shifted Tajpuriya to the jail hospital and later to DDU Hospital around 6.45 am where he was declared brought dead, the officials said, adding Rohit has been discharged from the hospital and brought back to the prison.
According to jail officials, Tajpuriya was shifted from Rohini jail about 15 days ago and was to be shifted again within five days.
The officials said they are planning to shift the four assailants to a different jail.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Akshat Kaushal said Hari Nagar police station received information about the incident around 7 am from the DDU Hospital.
During enquiry from jail staff, it was revealed that the four assailants had attacked Tajpuriya with improvised knives and brutally stabbed him. When Rohit tried to intervene, he was also attacked and injured, Kaushal said.
The postmortem of the deceased was later conducted.
Improvised knives used in the offence have been recovered from accused persons, police said.
In this matter, legal action has been initiated under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 34 (common intension) of the IPC at Hari Nagar police station, the additional DCP said.
"After the killing of Gogi, Tillu Tajpuriya was a marked man. In the wake of his killing, we have taken precautionary measures and are not allowing the gang members of Gogi and Tillu to come out of their cells across the three prison complexes. We will keep reshuffling them," a senior jail official said.
The concerned Metropolitan Magistrate has already initiated an inquiry into the incident, the officials said.
This was the second incident in which a prisoner was killed inside the Tihar jail within a month.
On April 14, Prince Tewatia (33), an associate of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, was killed similarly in an early morning attack inside the jail by rival gang members following an altercation with an inmate. An under-trial prisoner, he was lodged in ward no. 6 of the jail no. 3 which has around 380 inmates.
The prison officials claimed they have started enhancing security arrangements inside the high-risk jail and carrying out intensive searches in wards for improvised weapons and other illegal items, such as mobile phones, after the Tewatia incident. They were also maintaining a "strict vigil" through CCTV cameras.
The murder of Tajpuriya, however, has put a serious question mark on the security arrangements in Tihar jail.
Asked how an incident like this has happened again, another jail official said the attack was completed within one-and-a-half minute and the assailants exploited "dark spots", where no cameras could see, to enter Tajpuriya's cell.
The official said cameras are not installed in some areas, such as washrooms, to ensure privacy of the prisoners.
The jail officials said they are working on a detailed plan to improve the response time in case of a clash between inmates and taking other steps to make security fool-proof inside the premises.
An inquiry has been ordered into the incident to find out the lapses, they said.
In the social media post, Brar said, "Hello everyone, the murder of Tillu Tajpuriya that happened on Tuesday in Tihar jail was done by our brothers Yogesh Tunda and Deepak Titar. Due to loss of Gogi Maan bhai, Tillu took the responsibility and he was the enemy of our brothers from the beginning. The number of others will come soon." Hours after the killing of Tajpuriya, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued notice to the Delhi government and the director general of prisons, seeking a report within four weeks.
The human rights body said the report should include steps taken or proposed to be taken to ensure the safety of prisoners inside the Tihar jail so that such violent and fatal incidents do not recur in the future.
Delhi will soon get its fourth jail in Narela to house high-risk prisoners, with the Centre allocating Rs 120 crore for the prison complex modelled on the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
"The idea behind the project is to ensure that those prisoners, who are in jail because of offences committed against the state, remain in isolation. Although there are isolation facilities in the other three jails in Tihar, Rohini and Mandoli, the new prison complex will solely house such prisoners who are a threat to society," an official had said.
In September 2021, gangster Gogi was shot dead by two assailants dressed as lawyers inside the Rohini court complex. The assailants were then killed in retaliatory firing by the police.
