India: Tihar Jail violence, no quick-fix solutions, judicial reforms necessary

Tihar Jail, located in New Delhi, is one of South Asia’s largest and most notorious prison complexes. The prison was intended as a correctional facility, but the growing spate of violence and gang wars within the jail has cast a shadow over its reputation yet again. Why have the authorities been unable to curb the violence in Tihar for years?

The recent killing of Tillu Tajpuriya – an acused in the Rohini court shootout case of 2021 – is a case in point. Tajpuriya was allegedly stabbed to death by rival gangsters inside Tihar, and the jail authorities could not stop the violence despite the premises having multiple CCTVs, prison guards and surveillance teams. A distressing CCTV footage showed Tajpuriya being stabbed over 100 times inside the jail by his attackers.