Major rejig in Tihar, 99 jail officials transferred after Tillu Tajpuriya murder
New Delhi: In a major rejig in the Tihar Jail, as many as 99 prison officials were transferred on Thursday.
The move comes after CCTV visuals of the killing of Tillu Tajpuriya surfaced, which showed that fellow inmates continued stabbing the prime accused of the Rohini Court shootout 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 in this matter.
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 said.
The sources further said that in the wake of Tillu Tajpuriya's murder by the members of 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.
"Around 30 to 35 dreaded gangsters are lodged inside the jail, including gangster Naveen Bali, gangster Neeraj Bawana and his henchmen Ashok Pradhan, and Deepak Boxer. Their lives are mainly under threat," the source added.
"Apart from this, the Tihar Jail administration is now including the Special Cell and Crime Branch of Delhi Police in the Security Assessment Committee of Tihar Jail, so that it can be identified that which prisoner is associated with which gang and can be shifted safely," source said further.
Sunil Balyan alias gangster Tillu Tajpuriya, an accused in Delhi's Rohini court shootout case was killed by rival gang members in Tihar jail on May 2.
According to the prison officials, Tillu Tajpuriya was immediately taken to Delhi's Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where he was declared brought dead.
Members of the rival gang namely Deepak Teeter, Yogesh alias Tunda, Rajesh and Riyaz Khan had around 6:15 am cut open the iron grill installed on the first floor of the ward using an improvised saw. According to a prison official, the accused were lodged on the first floor of the same ward and they used an iron rod to attack Tajpuriya.
Tajpuriya, a resident of Delhi who headed the infamous Tillu gang, was arrested in 2016 for multiple crimes and had been in jail ever since.
Sunil Balyan alias Tajpuriya was the main accused in the Rohini court shootout case in September 2021 which left his friend-turned-rival gangster Jitender Maan alias Gogi dead.
The shooters, alleged associates of Tajpuriya had come dressed in lawyer's clothes and gunned Gogoi dead inside a courtroom in Rohini court. The two gunmen were immediately shot dead by the police team.
Tajpuriya and his gang's rivalry with another gang led by notorious gangster, Jitender Gogi dates back to 2009 when the pair were friends but supported different candidates in elections in Swami Shraddhanand College in Outer Delhi. (ANI)