After first attack, Tillu Tajpuriya was stabbed repeatedly as Tihar guards watched

Tillu was the alleged mastermind of the December 2021 murder of his arch-rival, gangster Jitender Mann alias Gogi, inside Rohini court. All the four accused — Deepak alias Titar, Yogesh alias Tunda, Rajesh and Riyaz Khan — are associated with the Gogi gang and claimed Tillu’s murder was revenge for Gogi’s death.

A day earlier, another video showed the accused, who were lodged at jail no. 8 along with Tillu, climbing down from the second floor of the ward inside jail no. 8 using a bedsheet and pouncing on the 33-year-old.

Friday’s video, which seems to have been captured moments after Tillu was attacked inside the ward, shows around four jail officials shifting his blood-soaked body to the prison OPD through a common gallery when they were overpowered by the accused who came in through a second exit gate, which had been left open.

The accused are then seen taking turns stabbing Tillu’s body with sharp-edged weapons, all over, around a dozen times. In the video, two-three officials are seen trying to intervene, but to no avail, while the others looked on.

“The accused inmates followed the officers as they were carrying the body towards the exit and waited for an opportunity to strike again as they kept the body on the floor… As a stretcher was not immediately available at that time, a small bed sheet was used to move the body,” said a jail official.

Another jail official said an internal probe has also been launched to find out why the officials present when Tillu was attacked for the second time did not seize their weapons.

“Ideally, they should have been locked in a separate cell after the (first) incident and not allowed to roam freely as the deceased was being carried outside… All the lapses, including the delayed response time, will be covered under the internal inquiry,” said the official.

Tihar is considered South Asia’s largest prison complex. According to officials, the high-security jail no. 8 where Tillu and the accused gangsters were lodged has around 2,500 guards, including jail officials, personnel of the Tamil Nadu Special Police (TSP) and the CRPF.

Said a jail official: “While jail officials are not allowed to carry any weapon, only a plastic fibre baton in extreme cases, TSP and CRPF officers carry weapons, mostly a pistol, while being deployed on the jail premises.”

One of Delhi’s most feared gangsters, Tillu had allegedly led his men to commit murder, extortion and robbery to ensure his dominance in Delhi-NCR. His arrest in 2016 did nothing to stop his criminal activities.

His killing is the second such incident of gang rivalry in Tihar in a month. In April, Prince Tewatia, an aide of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, an accused in singer Sidhu Moosewala’s murder, was killed by rival gang members.