At Tillu and Gogi’s village, a tale of friends turned foes

A sequence of events while led to the murder of gangster Tillu Tajpuriya on Monday (Illustration: Suvajit Dey)

A sense of sorrow enveloped Tajpur Kalan as friends and relatives mourned the death of Tajpuriya, once a promising wrestler and later notorious gangster, who changed tracks after a fall-out with his school friend Gogi.

Tajpuriya’s father Jagpal Singh, a former MCD clerk, said that even though the loss of a son is unbearable, he knew that Tajpuriya was dicing with death. “He studied till class 10 after which he took up wrestling and competed in several local tournaments. He soon fell into bad company. I snapped ties with him around eight years ago and rarely spoke to him as his deeds brought disrepute to the family,” Singh said, adding that the rivalry between his son’s gang and the opposing one had aggravated in recent years. “I never went to visit him in the jail,” he said.

Inside Tajpuriya’s house, the walls sported photos from his younger years, one of them with his close aides, Sunil Maan, who is currently in Tihar jail, and others of him felicitating a winner in a local wrestling event.

A friend, previously imprisoned along with Tajpuriya at Tihar jail, said Tajpuriya never wanted his family to visit him in jail and kept to himself. “When I called him, he would tell me that he was doing well. For his close aides and relatives, he is a martyr,” he said.

Jailed gangster Tillu Tajpuriya has been heading his gang for over a decade (Illustration: Suvajit Dey)

As several villagers watched reels and videos saying “We will miss you Tillu bhaiya”, a neighbour said, “Everyone in the village knew and respected Sunil as he was a youth icon and we used to call him ‘Pehelwan Tillu’, but his descent came rapidly after he started indulging in gang wars and violent student politics. Later, people grew to be scared of him,” the neighbour added.

Meanwhile, at Gogi’s Alipur home, the gangster’s 70-year-old mother Parmeshwari Devi, lying on a cot, said, “I heard about the news of Tajpuriya’s killing on TV this morning. Tajpuriya and Gogi were best friends in school, but things took a turn for the worse. I had not seen my son for eight years and only got his body back after he was killed two years ago.” Devi added that ever since her son was shot dead in court, they rarely go out as there is a perpetual fear