NEW DELHI: Seven personnel of the Tamil Nadu Special Police (TNSP), who was on duty at a Tihar prison cell when gangster Tillu Tajpuriya was stabbed to death, have been suspended and will be sent back to Tamil Nadu for allegedly standing as mute spectators at the time of the incident, jail officials said on Sunday.
The development comes days after Director General of Delhi Prisons Sanjay Beniwal wrote to the Tamil Nadu Police asking them to take action against its personnel.
A meeting was also conducted with officials of the TNSP regarding the alleged negligence on part of their personnel during which they had assured to take departmental action against their personnel, a jail official had said.
"The Tamil Nadu Police has now suspended seven of its personnel and called them back," a jail official said.
The TNSP personnel were deployed at cell number eight where the incident took place, the officials said. The TNSP provides security on the Tihar jail premises.
A CCTV video from Tihar Jail which emerged on social media purportedly showed Tajpuriya being attacked in front of security personnel as well when they were carrying him away after he was stabbed.
Tajpuriya was assaulted with improvised weapons allegedly by four members of the Gogi gang inside the high-security prison on Tuesday morning.
But he was still alive and was being carried away by the prison security personnel when the accused attacked him for a second time, according to the footage.
In the footage, it appeared that the security personnel remained mute spectators while the assailants kept attacking the gangster.