Tihar Jail

Tihar Jail is Delhi's main prison complex, in West Delhi near Janakpuri. Wikipedia says it opened in 1957, was first run by the State of Punjab and passed to Delhi in 1966, and is run by the Delhi Prisons department of the Government of Delhi. It has nine central prisons on over 400 acres. On 31 December 2023 it held 14,059 prisoners against a sanctioned capacity of 5,200. Delhi has two other prison complexes, Rohini and Mandoli.

Key moments

• December 1984: Tihar set up a courtroom in the superintendent's office in Jail No. 3 to try the men accused of killing Indira Gandhi. Defence lawyers, among them Ram Jethmalani, argued in the Supreme Court against a trial inside the jail and lost. This is from the jail law officer Sunil Gupta's book Black Warrant, as reviewed by Dal Khalsa spokesperson Kanwar Pal Singh.
• 6 January 1989: Satwant Singh and Kehar Singh were hanged at Tihar. A Home Ministry official said Kehar Singh maintained his innocence and Satwant Singh said he had no regrets. According to Gupta, both shouted "Jo Bole So Nihal" as they died, their bodies were not given to their families, and the families were later taken to Haridwar to immerse the ashes. The Akal Takht declared both men martyrs.
• June 2015: Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, convicted in the 1993 Raisina Road bombing case, was moved from Tihar to Amritsar Central Jail and admitted to a psychiatric ward.
• 27 September 2024: a Supreme Court bench led by Justice B R Gavai issued notice on Jagtar Singh Hawara's plea to be moved from Tihar to a jail in Punjab. His counsel, Colin Gonsalves, said Hawara's conduct since his re-arrest was clean and that the Director General of Prisons had recommended a Punjab transfer on 7 October 2016.
• 23 December 2025: Delhi's Sentence Review Board considered 51 cases and rejected 24, Bhullar's among them. The decision was sent to the Director General of Prisons, Tihar, by a letter of 5 February 2026.
• July 2026: the Punjab and Haryana High Court's order on Hawara's parole names him as held in Central Jail No. 15, Mandoli, Delhi, and sends his request to the Home Secretary of the Union Territory of Chandigarh for comment.

Which government decides. Hawara was sentenced in Chandigarh in the Beant Singh case, to death in 2007, commuted to life by the High Court in 2010. He is in a Delhi jail, but it is Chandigarh's administration that is asked about his parole. Bhullar is held in Amritsar, but Delhi's board decides his release.

What it means to the Panth. Tihar is where the state hanged two Sikhs whom the Panth honours as Shaheed, and where Bandi Singhs have been held for years.