Gangster Sunil Tillu Tajpuria murder: How Delhi's Tihar Jail plans to keep trouble at bay

NEW DELHI: Tihar Jail, which is under the spotlight after the murder of gangster Sunil Tillu Tajpuria on Tuesday, has begun a reassessment of the housing of high-risk prisoners in the prison complex.
Many of the more notorious inmates are being shifted to other cells to avoid a rerun of the Tuesday mayhem. Of the four prisoners involved in the fatal attack on Tajpuria, two have been moved to Rohini Jail and two to Mandoli Jail.

The jail authorities are considering the segregation of high-risk prisoners, especially those perceived to be troublemakers, in separate jails to prevent them forming groups within the prison and to avoid a recurrence of gangland slayings.
Tihar is also replacing the steel exhaust fans to prevent prisoners from fashioning weapons out of the blades. Senior officials of the prison department are in talks with Delhi Police's Special Cell and other law enforcement agencies to determine the threat perception around the several gangsters incarcerated in Tihar. A meeting with this regard will be held soon. "We will coordinate with police to get real-time data about active gang members and segregate them inside prisons to restrict them," a jail official said.
The lack of security manpower is also a problem. Jails 8 and 9, where the high-risk inmates are lodged, hold 2,300 prisoners but have only 60 staffers to manage them. With the paucity of security personnel, frisking of high-risk prisoners wasn't a part of the daily routine though the jail officials claimed searches were carried out regularly based on information inputs, sometimes even at random.
Following Tajpuria's killing, Sanjay Baniwal, director general, Tihar Jail, held a meeting with the jail guards and personnel of the Tamil Nadu Special Police and Indo-Tibetan Border Police serving in the prison. "We are looking at dereliction of duty. The jail guards were questioned about their presence at the time of the incident. If any connivance or malpractice is found, we will fix responsibility and take action," a jail official said.
Another official confirmed that the steel exhaust fans were being replaced now. "Most of the improvised weapons have been made from the blades of the exhaust fans. That is why we are replacing them," said the official. Another officer said, "The officers in charge of each ward have been asked to assiduously check windows, gates and sewer caps. If anything is found broken, they have to immediately report it to seniors and conduct searches."
The officials also complained about the overcrowding and the problems of security this created. InJails 8 and 9, for instance, 2,300 inmates live in space meant for 1,200, watched over by a mere 60 staffers. "There is always pressure on us due to the paucity of human resources. The prisoners abuse us, but we have to remain calm and carry on without being provoked," claimed one official.