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India · Delhi · New Delhi

Tihar Jail

StateHighmixedDeath rowOvercrowded (180%)ModerateHigh
Verified · Data dated
Aging · 5mo ago
Sources last reviewed on · data-as-of

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

For families

How to send mail, money, and visit Tihar Jail

Step-by-step guidance using the India system — addresses, money services, visit booking, what to bring on your first visit.

Open toolkit
Photograph of Tihar Jail
Photo by IAC Delhi via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Gallery

From Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA where not otherwise stated).

  • Tihar Jail ( Anna Hazare Support Rally to Tihar Jail 17-08-2011).png

    Photo by IAC Delhi via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

  • Tihar Jail Products Muffin and Brownie.jpg

    Photo by Pulakit Singh via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

  • Tihar Jail, Delhi.jpg

    Photo by Zuck28 via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

South Asia's largest prison complex, comprising 16 jails in central Delhi. Houses pretrial and convicted inmates across nine central jails plus annexes.

Capacity

10,026

Current population

18,000

Occupancy

180%

Year opened

1958

Operational

Figures from official sources · verified 29 May 2026 · methodology

Facility profile

Population held

mixed

Opened

1958

Region

Delhi

Security level

High

Death-row facility

Yes

Conditions

Significantly overcrowded at ~180% of design capacity. Multiple high-profile in-custody incidents.

Visiting

Visits via the eMulaqat online appointment portal; 30 minutes; ID required.

Mailing

Inmate Name & Prison Number, Central Jail Tihar [Jail No.], Tihar Village, New Delhi 110018, India.

Practical info

Tihar runs the country's most extensive inmate education and vocational programme.

Known issues

Inmate factionalism documented; high-profile murder of Tillu Tajpuriya in 2023.

Notable inmates

  • Amar Singh
    Amar Singh
    1956–2020 · industrialist

    Amar Singh (27 January 1956 – 1 August 2020) was an Indian politician from the state of Uttar Pradesh.

  • Kanimozhi Karunanidhi
    Kanimozhi Karunanidhi
    1968 · politician

    Kanimozhi Karunanidhi (born 5 January 1968) is an Indian politician, poet and journalist.

  • Jitender Singh Tomar
    1966 · politician

    Jitender Singh Tomar is an Indian politician and former cabinet minister of Home, law and justice in the Government of NCT of Delhi headed by former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from which he was resigned after a Fake Degree case against him.

  • Sher Singh Rana
    1976
  • Subrata Roy
    Subrata Roy
    1948–2023 · politician

    Subrata Roy (10 June 1948 – 14 November 2023) was an Indian businessman who founded the business conglomerate Sahara India Pariwar in 1978. Roy was named the tenth-most influential Indian businessman in 2012 by India Today.

  • Charles Sobhraj
    Charles Sobhraj
    1944 · serial killer

    Charles Sobhraj (born Hotchand Bhawnani Gurmukh Sobhraj; 6 April 1944) is a French serial killer, fraudster, and thief whose victims were mainly Western tourists travelling on the hippie trail of South Asia during the 1970s.

  • Ankeet Chavan
    1985 · cricketer

    Ankeet Chavan (born 28 October 1985) is a former cricketer who played for Mumbai in Indian domestic cricket.

  • Subrata Roy
    Subrata Roy
    1948–2023 · politician

    Subrata Roy (10 June 1948 – 14 November 2023) was an Indian businessman who founded the business conglomerate Sahara India Pariwar in 1978. Roy was named the tenth-most influential Indian businessman in 2012 by India Today.

  • Manu Sharma
    1977 · geneticist

    Manu Sharma (born 1977) is an Indian convicted murderer who was imprisoned for the 1999 murder of Jessica Lal.

Showing 9 of 12. Source: Wikidata + Wikipedia.

Contact & address

Tihar Village, New Delhi 110018
+91 11 28523911
Official site

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

33/100
Moderate concern33/100
Overcrowding
22/30
Oversight reports
6/30
Structural flags
5/15
Death signals
0/15
Conditions text
0/10

What the score is responding to:

  • · Severely overcrowded at 180% of capacity
  • · 1 oversight report in the last 5 years
  • · Death-row facility

This facility scores 33. The national average across 1,739 scored India facilities is 33 — matching the national average.

Trend over time

Population and occupancy by year. Source: official corrections statistics + oversight reports.

Population held

2018: 16,000+12.5%2024: 18,000

Occupancy %

2018: 160.0%+12.5%2024: 180.0%

Related facilities

All in India →

Same country, matched on type + security level where possible.

Compared to other facilities in India

1738 peers
Capacity (beds)this: 10026 · peers avg: 787 (+1175%)

Reports

  • Delhi High Court2 May 2023

    Court took suo motu cognisance of the murder of inmate Tillu Tajpuriya inside Tihar; ordered review of intra-prison movement and segregation of high-risk inmates.

    source

Data completeness

100%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources

Cite this page

Under CC-BY-4.0. Include the URL and access date; the site is a living reference and entries can change.

APA
World Prisons. (2026). Tihar Jail. Retrieved October 20, 2026, from https://worldprisons.com/prisons/tihar
Chicago
"Tihar Jail." World Prisons. Accessed October 20, 2026. https://worldprisons.com/prisons/tihar.
BibTeX
@misc{worldprisons-tihar,
  author = {{World Prisons}},
  title = {Tihar Jail},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://worldprisons.com/prisons/tihar},
  urldate = {2026-10-20}
}