Gangster shoots 2 including Mukhtar Ansari aide in UP jail, is killed by cops

A prisoner in Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot jail shot dead two gangsters and held five hostage before he was killed by a police team on Friday morning, people familiar with the matter said. It is not clear how the prisoner, Anshul Dixit, who shot dead the two gangsters managed to smuggle the 9mm pistol into the prison.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered director general of UP prisons Anand Kumar to send the first report on the incident within six hours and hold a detailed probe into the incident along with the Chitrakoot divisional commissioner DK Singh and inspector general (IG) Chitrakoot K Satya Narain.

Police identified the two killed by Anshul Dixit in the shooting as Mukeem alias Kala, a gangster facing 61 criminal cases including the murder of three police personnel, and Merajudden, a close aide of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari. The powerful Bahujan Samaj Party legislator was recently brought back to UP from Punjab after the Yogi Adityanath government approached the Supreme Court. Ansari is being held in a jail in the adjoining district of Banda.

In his first comments, Anand Kumar conceded there had been lapses by prison officials and vowed to take strict action against the officials concerned. By evening, news came that jail superintendent SP Tripathi and jailer Mahendra Pal have been suspended for lapses in jail security. A departmental inquiry has also been ordered.

Santosh Verma, the spokesman of UP prison at Lucknow, said the incident took place shortly after 10am when prisoners came out of their barracks. Dixit suddenly opened fire and killed the two prisoners and held five other prisoners hostage, threatening to kill them.

He said jail officials sought help from the police to control the situation. The police team that arrived gunned down Anshul Dixit to rescue the hostages. It has been deployed in the prison for some time to ensure there is no more trouble. The pistol that Dixit used has also been seized by the police.

Verma said the accused, Anshul Dixit was transferred from Sultanpur jail to Chitrakoot jail in December 2019. Mukeem alias Kala was shifted to Chitrakoot from Saharanpur jail in March this year; Mukhtar Ansari’s aide Merajudeen was transferred from Varanasi jail barely a week ago.

A senior police officer said Anshul Dixit faces over 15 cases including the murder of former Lucknow University Student Union general secretary Vinod Tripathi in 2007.

One of the two men who he killed had longer rap sheets. Mukeem alias Kala, who was mostly active in western UP, has over 61 criminal cases registered against him including the murder of three policemen over the last decade. Kala operated extortion rackets in Kairana, Shamli and Muzaffarnagar districts where he mostly targeted businessmen and traders. He is blamed for many businessmen shifting out of this region. Merajuddin has three cases but his claim to notoriety was his proximity to Mukhtar Ansari, the officer said.