"Lapses Were From Jail Administration's End": Police Official On Gangster's Murder

With the murder of dreaded gangster Tillu Tajpuriya inside Delhi's Tihar jail early this month raising questions on security inside the prison, Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) HGS Dhaliwal on Friday said that there were "lapses from the jail administration's end."

Tillu Tajpuriya was killed on May 2 by the members of the rival Jitendra Gogi gang in Tihar. The entire incident was captured on the CCTVs installed in the prison. Notably, on September 24, 2021, Tajpuriya's gunmen, dressed as lawyers, shot Gogi dead in a courtroom in Rohini.

"Lapses were from the jail administration's end, but yes, to avoid this incident, we should have kept members of both gangs in separate jails," HGS Dhaliwal said in an exclusive interview with ANI.

He said that the police have arrested six people so far in connection with Tillu Tajpuriya's murder.

"Initially, Special Cell had arrested four persons. Yogesh Tunda, Deepak, Riyaz Khan and Rajesh Bawani. Later, two more people were nabbed namely Vijay Chawanni and Ataul Rehman," he said.

According to the senior officer, Vjay Chawanni had tried to cover the CCTV with the blanket so that incident would not get recorded while Ataul Rehman disposed of the knives which were used in stabbing Tillu.

"After rival Jitendra Gogi's murder, Tillu Tajpuriya was the main target. In fact, Yogesh Tunda and Deepak were attacked before in jail. Deepak was stabbed two times before and was holding the Tajpuriya gang responsible for the attack on him," Dhaliwal said.

He further said that the accused were planning to kill Tillu Tajpuriya since April 22 when one of the accused Yogesh came from Mandoli jail.

"Riyaz broke the jail's railing and it broke easily as it wasn't that strong. Riyaz belongs to a family that works in the business of denting and painting so he had good skills in that. First, they broke a wiper, made a jack from the blanket and tied the wet blanket between both the jail railing. After that, they started rotating the wiper and created that much space that they rappelled down from their cell," HGS Dhaliwal said.

He further said that the accused had four knives made with the exhaust fan's blade.

"They knew that 'chakki cell' opens at 6 AM where inmates mingle with each other and attacked Tillu at the same time," he added.

On Thursday, the Special Cell of Delhi Police once again reached Tihar Jail and recreated the crime scene with the accused.

Meanwhile in a major shuffle, as many as 99 Tihar prison officials were transferred on Thursday.

The CCTV footage of the killing of Tillu Tajpuriya showed that fellow inmates continued stabbing him in front of uniformed personnel, who did not intervene. The footage from the CCTV camera mounted on the wall of Central Gallery inside Tihar Jail was from around 6:15 am on May 2.

The police personnel could be seen standing near Tillu Tajpuriya, lying on the floor, and watching three men stabbing the gangster with weapons, fashioned out of lockup grills.

Later, nine Tihar Jail officials, including the assistant superintendent, were suspended.

However, apart from this, sources earlier told ANI that the jail administration has initiated listing of dreaded gangsters, lodged inside Tihar, and started shifting them to different prisons. "Tihar administration has initiated the work as they predict another gang war inside the jail," the sources had said.

The sources further said that in the wake of Tillu Tajpuriya's murder by the members of the Gogi gang, the administration is shifting all inmates to different cells, which would be far from their rival gang members' cells.

"All in all, Tihar Jail has over thousand prisoners, including the top gangster and his henchmen. They mainly include those prisoners who are in silent mode and suddenly attack their rival gang members," the Tihar Jail sources said. They went on to add that there are around 30-35 inmates, whose security is under threat.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)