Tihar jail security under spotlight after two prisoners killed within a month

The killing of a second gangster in less than a month inside the Tihar jail here has once again put a serious question mark on the security at one of the largest prisons in Asia despite officials claiming they were implementing a detailed plan to avoid such incidentsSunil alias Tillu Tajpuriya 33 lodged on the ground floor of the highsecurity prison was killed by members of the Gogi gang with an improvised weapon around 615 am on TuesdayThe four attackers lodged on the first floor cut the iron grille installed there and used bed sheets to climb down to Tajpuriyas floor Tajpuriya suffered multiple stab wounds and was declared dead by doctors at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital officials saidOn April 14 Prince Tewatia 33 an associate of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was killed similarly in an earlymorning attack inside the jail by rival gang members following an altercation with an inmate An undertrial prisoner he was lodged in ward no 6 of the jail no 3 which has around 380 inmatesOfficials claimed they were 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 camerasAsked how an incident like this has happened again a jail official said the attack was completed within oneandahalf minutes and the assailants exploited dark spots where no cameras could see to enter Tajpuriyas cellThey attackers did not enter the barrack directly or else they would have been caught he saidAlso readFraudster dupes cybercrime lawyer sells fake car insurance policyWhen Tillu saw the attackers he ran towards another inmates cell The inmate named Rohit also tried to save him Everything happened within a span of oneandahalfminutes he addedAsked why cameras were not installed to cover the dark spots the official said cameras are not installed in some areas such as washrooms to ensure privacy of the prisonersAn inquiry has been ordered into the incident to find out the lapses officials saidThey 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 foolproof inside the premisesEver since the murder of gangster Prince Tewatia there has been a strict order from the DG Prison to conduct intensive searches regularly to ensure no illegal activities take place inside the wards and barracks Since the incident in April we have been conducting regular checks in all jails in Delhi especially where notorious criminals and rival gang members are lodged said a jail officialThe Tamil Nadu Special Police Force and Central Reserve Police Force personnel have been tasked with carrying out these searches which were intensified after Tewatias killing he saidWe are also trying to reduce our response time and a detailed plan is being drafted he saidPolice officers who have been involved in investigating cases related to these gangs opined that the rival gang members should not have been housed in the same compound knowing their history of rivalryIt is well known that these are hardened criminals who have been involved in multiple cases They are not firsttime criminals who will just sit and watch the game Ideally the members of Gogi gang should have been kept in a separate jail or could have been shifted to another jail complexes like Mandoli and Rohini a senior police official saidThe official added the members of Gogi gang were thirsting for revenge ever since their gang leader Jitender Gogi was brutally killed in the Rohini court in a shootout in 2021 Tajpuriya was an accused in the killing of GogiIn the past Tihar has been in the spotlight over jailed criminals and gangsters running extortion rackets from inside the prison It is also alleged that the killing of Punjabi singer and Congress leader Sidhu Moose Wala was planned partly inside the Tihar jailAccording to officials an inmate Ankit Gujjar 29 was found dead inside his cell in Tihar jail on August 4 in 2021 Later a Delhi court had transferred the investigation into the death of Gujjar from Delhi Police to the CBI after opining that the deceased lost his life in custodial violence He was allegedly beaten to death by jail staffers after he resisted being shifted to another wardIn 2022 the CBI had charged then deputy superintendent of Tihar prison Narender Meena with culpable homicide not amounting to murder in connection with the death of Gujjar The agency had arrested Meena which was followed by five more arrests of Tihar prison officialsIn 2020 a prisoner in Tihar jail had stabbed another inmate to death allegedly to avenge the rape of his sister six years ago Zakir 21 was stabbed by Mohammad Mehtab 27 a resident of Nizamuddin inside Tihar jail He was stabbed multiple times including on his stomach and neck by Zakir using a sharp metal objectThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its 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