In a recent interview on the Indian Achievers YouTube channel, Sunil Gupta, talked about corruption and extortion rampant inside Tihar Jail.
Gupta was the former superintendant of Tihar Jail and the author of the book Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer.
He talked about the mechanics of corruption inside the complex, the larger bureucratic ecosytem, and his personal experiences challenging corruption in India.
On 15 October 2025, Sunil Kumar Gupta spoke out on the corrupt and exploitative practices that define Delhi’s infamous Tihar Jail – laying bare what the entrenched corruption, extortion and administrative failure inside India’s largest prison complex.
The former superintendent of Tihar Jail and author of Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer, made the revelations while speaking to Rajeev Gupta on the Indian Achievers YouTube channel, a political analysis and commentary outlet.
Sunil Gupta began his career working in the Indian Railways, before shifting to Tihar as the assistant superintendent. During his time there, Mr. Sunil came face to face with the plight of the Indian prison system - he saw prisoners devoid of rights and recourse, while administrators reigned free.
Mr. Sunil was moved by his interactions with Tihar’s prisoners. During his time there, he vehemently fought for prisoners’ rights and institutional reforms. He is credited with establishing the prison’s first legal aid cell to provide free legal assistance to disadvantaged inmates, and with initiating court sessions inside the jail to expedite minor cases and reduce unnecessary remand. He helped draft the Delhi Prison Act, 2000, and the Model Prison Manual, combining first-hand description with reform proposals.
He has always proudly proclaimed his integrity, fighting against the system and facing constant hostility.
Commencing the interview, titled 'Tihar Jails: A Symbol of Corruption, Exploitation, Extortion & Torture?', Mr. Rajeev posed three simple but crucial questions to Mr. Sunil: “What are the different forms of corruption in Tihar Jail? Who all are involved in it? And how does this corruption work?”
Mr. Sunil began by answering why corruption is rampant in Tihar.
Jails - Tihar especially - are punishment postings for civil servants. IAS and IPS officers find themselves dumped here thanks to political vendettas or when their performance is lacking. If this is the situation, he asks, how is someone positioned here expected to behave? “He will only do the wrong things.”
He attributes the failings of the administration to two factors – egoism and a lack of professionalism. He explained how the system lacks basic induction and refresher training, and how there is institutional inertia – new administrators learn the ropes from those who have been exploiting the system.
Mr. Sunil described how a circle quickly forms around successive superintendents who arrive “from outside.” He said each incoming superintendent is surrounded staff members who advise and control him, telling him how to run the jail and how to extract profits. “As soon as they come to the jail, they have eight to ten people in every jail who surround them and say, ‘Sir, you can sit comfortably in jail. We will tell you how to run the jail.’”
Mr. Sunil explained in granular detail how money is extracted from prisoners and how entrenched patronage networks protect these rackets. He estimated that roughly one-third of the officers in Tihar are honest and work with integrity, another one-third are corrupt, while “40 per cent are nikhattar,” meaning officers who are useless or can be bribed. Gupta added that the few honest officials in the system are often unable to speak out, as the corrupt and complacent elements hold sway like an internal mafia, suppressing any attempt at reform. He mentioned how people who learn the system keep asking to get posted back in Tihar, so they can keep their mafia running.
New prisoners, he said, are immediately subjected to humiliation and violence; poor inmates are set to menial tasks and bullied under threat of payment. Wealthier prisoners are either beaten under threat of extortion or plied with luxuries in exchange for money. Gupta cited examples of mobile phones, liquor, tobacco, drugs and even paid visits by women reaching inmates through corrupt staff channels.
He also described how habitual inmates are used to intimidate or physically coerce other prisoners to extract money, and how commercial activity inside the prison: selling tobacco, arranging illicit visits, moving mobile phones and coordinating outside business deals is organised by inmates with the collusion of staff.
Throughout the interview, Mr. Sunil detailed the extent of corruption inside Tihar by highlighting examples from his time as superintendent.
He spoke about inmates who managed to access drugs, mobile phones, liquor, and other contraband through staff intermediaries. The transactions, he said, were routine: mobile phones and tobacco supplied for a fee, or “special arrangements” made for wealthy prisoners in exchange for regular payments. He cited the case of conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar, who, according to Gupta, “was giving the entire staff an additional salary every month,” allowing him to run operations from inside the prison and host high profile visitors, including film personalities such as Jacqueline Fernandez.
Mr. Sunil also referred to a separate case involving a Unitech builder who was caught conducting business deals from inside the jail, an incident that led to departmental action against several officers, including a superintendent.
As a jail officer, Gupta said he resisted these practices and consistently raised red flags about systemic abuse. But his efforts to expose internal corruption brought retaliation instead of reform. He was served a chargesheet close to his retirement in 2016, accused of procedural lapses in purchases he said he had no authority to make.
He shared that from 2016 until 2022 he faced administrative pressure and inquiry proceedings that were eventually dropped when no culpability was found. “When they didn’t find anything, they dropped the chargesheet,” he said. Gupta added that withheld salary was returned with interest after the case was closed.
Mr. Sunil said he once approached Arvind Kejriwal, the CM of Delhi, with concerns about illegal practices and staff misconduct within the prison. Kejriwal even sat down with him for hours to discuss the issue, but the meetings produced no effective corrective action. “The ultimate result was zero.”
He pointed to the larger bureaucratic ecosystem as being at fault – no one could change it even if they wanted to. Everyday some or the other corruption case makes it to national headlines, naming an IPS or IAS officer. He says that while lower-level officers, like sub-inspectors, are regularly caught, corruption has reached the highest levels of the administration. Those sitting at the top, he points out, are never caught – “They act like saints,” he says, saying it was this or that officer working under them who was involved, not them. “What were you doing then?” he asks rhetorically.
He says that the only time action is taken against an officer is when another has vested interests against them.
Mr. Sunil recounts how, once, he wanted to register a school as a secondary level institution. To do so, he was urged to pay a middleman to expediate the process. He refused and what was the result? His paperwork was kept in indefinite limbo. He wrote letters to the LG, to state officials, “to everyone,” he said, but there was no recourse. “If an officer makes up his mind that you have to be punished for something – whatever he wrote, no one will cross it out,” he said.
When asked what can be done about this, he said, “you need to look at Arvind,’ talking about his Lokpal initiative. The bureaucracy will never police itself – you need an independent party to keep watch, an institution anyone can approach for help.
Mr. Sunil has come into the public eye recently thanks to the Netflix adaptation of his book, Black Warrant. The series brought the public’s attention to prison conditions, security lapses and gang influence inside Indian jails.
His public profile was further amplified by media coverage of his work establishing legal aid within Tihar and by his post-retirement legal practice at the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court, where he continues to advocate for underprivileged litigants. [OG/DS]