On Friday, Delhi Prisons chief Sanjay Baniwal said, “Eight jail officials have been suspended. We have also written to the commandant of the Tamil Nadu Special Police (TNSP), seeking action against all the security personnel who watched the attack and did nothing to stop the attackers. It is the commandant who will decide on the action against them.”

Tajpuria was stabbed over 100 times in the neck and at least 50 times in the ears on Tuesday morning, when four inmates belonging to a rival gang unleashed a brutal attack on the notorious criminal, murdering him in a prison courtyard in full view of security personnel and other prisoners, according to two videos of surveillance footage from CCTV cameras in the ward.

The footage shows that at least 10 jail officials, including at least eight armed security personnel, stood in a ring around the courtyard as Tajpuria was attacked. After they stopped, prison officials carried the grievously injured gangster away in a blanket. However, the attackers then pulled him off and went on a second stabbing spree, showed the footage. The security personnel, again, did not interfere.

It was not however clear if the eight suspended officers were present when the stabbing took place.

The Delhi Police special cell, which is probing the murder, will also investigate if jail staffers were involved in the execution or planning of the attack, said senior police officers aware of the matter.

Senior special cell officers said the investigating team is likely to visit the jail on Saturday and interrogate the four attackers, for which the permission has already been secured from court. The investigators will also speak to other inmates and jail staffers to ascertain the exact sequence of events leading to the murder.

The officers said the investigators will also look into the possible financial gains that may have been extended to jail staffers to facilitate the attackers with logistics and the transfer of Tajpuria in the same high-risk ward number 5 as they were lodged in.

Meanwhile, Tihar director general Sanjay Baniwal met Delhi lieutenant governor VK Saxena on Friday and presented him with an inquiry report.

A preliminary investigation into the murder has brought to the fore several lapses by jail authorities, the officers said.

One lapse that the police have highlighted is that 12 days before he was killed, Tajpuria was moved from the Mandoli jail to the same high-risk ward in Tihar as members of his rival Gogi gang.

Former legal advisor of Delhi Prisons, Sunil Gupta, said, “The prisons manual says that two rival prisoners should not be kept in the same jail, let alone the same ward. I am surprised that a well-known gangster like Tillu, who was one of the most sought-after persons for his rivals since Gogi’s 2021 murder that he masterminded, was transferred to Ward No-5, where his opponents were also lodged.”

Tajpuria’s transfer to Tihar was done on security grounds, and keeping in view the threats he was receiving from his rivals in Mandoli jail. Gupta also noted that the transfer of prisoners happens from Tihar Prisons headquarters.

Another fact that has left experts and the police baffled is that Tajpuria’s attackers had in their possession improvised knives, which they used to stab and kill the jailed gangster, despite being lodged in a high-risk ward.

“As per the guidelines, the lodgings of all prisoners should be searched in the morning and evening by jail staff. The weapons used in the attack must have been prepared by rubbing iron strips on concrete walls and floors by the inmates. Since it must have taken them days to improvise the metal into knives, it shows that the cells of the inmates were not searched,” said Gupta.

The third lapse that police highlighted was that after the initial attack on Tajpuria, his assailants continued to roam around the prison ward, giving them the opportunity to attack him again.

“In such situations (prisoners attacking each other), the jail and security staff are supposed to lock the other inmates, including the attackers in their cells. But in this case, the prisoners were all roaming around. And that’s why the attackers found the opportunity for the second attack,” said a police officer, who did not want to be named.