Jailed gangster Sunil Mann alias Tillu Tajpuriya was on Tuesday morning killed allegedly by rival gang members inside Delhi’s Tihar Jail, reported ANI.
Tajpuriya was lodged in jail in connection with the killing of gangster Jitender Gogi, who was shot dead by men dressed as lawyers at the city’s Rohini court in 2021. The shooters, who allegedly worked for the gang led by Tajpuriya, were killed in retaliatory firing by the police.
On Tuesday, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Akshat Kaushal said that Tajpuriya was taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital where he was declared dead.
“Another person, Rohit, is undergoing treatment and is out of danger,” he added.
The police said that a prisoner named Yogesh and other members of the rival gang attacked Tajpuriya. Yogesh and other gang members broke the iron grill that separated Tapuriya’s cell from theirs, Kaushal said, reported ANI.
The four assailants used a bedsheet to climb down to Tajpuriya’s floor, said officials, reported PTI.
Officials said that Tajpuriya was attacked with sharp-edged weapons in the high-security prison, reported NDTV.
A preliminary autopsy report showed the body had 92 wound marks, according to the news channel.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission issued a 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 ensure the safety of prisoners so that such violent and fatal incidents do not recur.
This was the second killing allegedly linked to gang rivalry inside the jail in less than a month. On April 14, gangster Prince Tewatia associated with gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was killed in an early-morning attack inside the jail by a rival gang member.
Since Tewatia’s killing, officials claimed, they have been conducting intensive searches in wards for improvised weapons and other illegal items. They also claimed to have been maintaining a strict vigil through CCTV cameras.
A jail official told PTI that the attack was possible as it was done within one-and-a-half minutes. He said that the assailants exploited “dark spots”, where no cameras could see them enter Tajpuriya’s cell.
“They (attackers) did not enter the barrack directly, or else they would have been caught,” he added. “When Tillu saw the attackers, he ran towards another inmate’s cell. The inmate [Rohit] also tried to save him.”
In August 2021, another inmate named Ankit Gujjar was found dead inside his cell in Tihar Jail. He was allegedly involved in a brawl with senior jail official Narender Meena due to the prison authorities’ decision to move him to another cell.
Two years later, Meena was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder in connection with the Gujjar’s death.
In 2020, another prisoner of the jail had stabbed an inmate to death allegedly to avenge his sister’s rape.
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