Attack on gangster Tillu Tajpuria continued in presence of Tihar jail staff in Delhi
CCTV footage shows that at least 10 jail officials, including 8 armed security personnel, and around 20 prisoners, did little to stop the attack.
Imprisoned gangster Tillu Tajpuria was stabbed over a 100 times in the neck, at least 50 times in the ears when four inmates of Delhi’s Tihar jail unleashed a brutal attack on the notorious criminal, murdering him in a prison courtyard in full view of security personnel and other prisoners, according to surveillance footage from CCTV cameras in the ward.
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The footage, parts of which HT has seen, shows that at least 10 jail officials, including at least eight armed security personnel, as well as around 20 prisoners, did little to stop the attack and stood helplessly in a ring around the courtyard, as members of members of slain gangster Jitender Gogi’s gang took out Tillu.
The four men stabbed Tillu repeatedly and stopped, after which prison officials carried the grievously injured gangster on a stretcher. However, the attackers then pulled him off the stretcher and went on a second stabbing spree, showed the footage. The security personnel, again, remained spectators.The entire attack lasted eight minutes.
The killers then used Tillu’s blood to write “Gogi Bhai” on the concrete floor of the courtyard, in a gory and macabre tribute to their slain gang leader.
Senior Delhi Police officers investigating the attack said they were working to pin responsibility for the various security lapses that marked Tuesday’s attack, also adding that the videos could point to complicity on the part of some prison guards.
Experts, however, said the footage only underlined the many failures of the prison’s security apparatus.
A senior officer of Delhi Police’s Western Range, part of the investigation, said, “It clearly indicates that either the jail staff feared the criminals, or connived with them.”
Members of Tillu’s gang had, in September 2021, shot Gogi dead in a Rohini courtroom, significantly aggravating a brutal rivalry between the two men that had kept the Delhi Police occupied for over a decade. Gogi’s supporters, including Kala Jatheri, Lawrence Bishnoi and Rajesh Bawania, had vowed revenge and promised to “make Tillu meet the same fate” as their gang leader.
Tillu’s killers planned his murder for 12 days, after he was moved to Tihar from Mandoli in mid-April.
The four assailants were lodged in a cell on the first floor of Tihar prison’s jail number 8, which also housed Tillu as the lone occupant of a cell on the ground floor. The ground floor in the ward opens onto a courtyard, while the first and second are cordoned off with iron bars, to prevent prisoners from one floor making their way to another.
Footage from the surveillance cameras, which investigating officers confirmed are not monitored live, also confirmed that the four slid to the ground floor using bed sheets around 6am on Tuesday.
They pried open a hole in the iron bars bit by bit over the past few days, to avoid being noticed, said police officers. Just as they headed down, they snapped off one of the bars, to use as a weapon.
The four men rushed to Tillu’s ward, stabbing him on the hand as he tried to bolt the gate to his cell. They then dragged him into the courtyard and began stabbing him with improvised knives (forged out of broken spoons) and the iron bar.
“Tillu was stabbed over 150 times,” said the police officer cited above.
A case of murder was lodged against Deepak alias Titar (31), Yogesh alias Tunda (30), Rajesh Singh(42) and Riyaz Khan (39) at Hari Nagar police station on Tuesday.
“We will soon move to court to seek five days’ police remand,” said a second Delhi Police officer aware of the matter.
The footage showed that Deepak and Khan landed most of the jabs at Tillu, said the police. The other two were “less aggressive” said the second officer.
Akshat Kaushal, the additional deputy commissioner of police (west) said police have inspected the spot and collected vital evidence, including the bedsheets and the bloodstained clothes of the four suspects and the victim.
“We have also recovered four improvised weapons,” he said.
Read here: After gangster killed in Delhi jail, police raids underway at multiple locations
When contacted, Sanjay Baniwal, director general (prisons) declined to make any comment on this issue.