In a major security lapse at Tihar Jail, one of the largest prison complexes in the world, the Delhi Prisons Department has terminated the services of 50 jail staffers posted on its premises after a verification drive found a mismatch in their biometric identification records. Among these 50 terminated jail staffers, 39 are warders, 9 are assistant superintendents, and 2 are matrons. This comes after the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB) detected manipulation of fingerprints during their recruitment process.
Sources said the department initiated an investigation after receiving reports of inconsistencies in the biometric data of some officials. A team of experts was formed to examine the data, and the findings revealed that 50 staffers had tampered with their biometric information. According to sources, the notice was served as per the direction of the DSSSB, which conducted the exams and recruited about 450 applicants for these three posts. Of these 450 employees, the biometric identification did not match for 50 of them, leading to the issuance of termination notices. The staffers were on probation for two years and are required to respond within one month to the notices issued to them.
A month’s termination notice has been issued to these officials who are currently posted across Tihar, Mandoli, and Rohini prisons, after which their services will be discontinued. It is suspected that somebody else took their exams. The DSSSB, responsible for recruiting personnel here, communicated the order to us, and we have proceeded accordingly,” sources added.
Tihar is home not only to dreaded gangsters such as Lawrence Bisnoi, Neeraj Bawana, Kala Jathedi, Deepak ‘Boxer’ Manjeet Mahal, and Hashim Baba, but it has also housed, or currently houses, a diverse group of VIP inmates. This includes former Ranbaxy promoters Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, politicians Satyendar Jain, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar, activist Umar Khalid, and Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar.
While jail brawls and extortion rackets being run from prison kept Tihar in the news for most of the year, even Delhi’s jail minister Satyendar Jain receiving massages and special treatment has courted controversy. Notably, the two killings — Prince Tewatia on April 14 and Tillu Tajpuriya on May 2, both by fellow inmates — have exposed major lapses in the prison’s security system. Despite rules, inmates have, in the past, managed to gain access to phones, alcohol, hard cash, and even weapons, according to former Tihar officials.
