UP police say no lapse in providing security to gangster Munna Bajrangi who was killed in jail

A day after Munna Bajrangi was shot dead allegedly by another gangster inside a jail in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh Director Genral of Police (DGP) OP Singh on Tuesday said there was no lapse on part of the police force in providing security to the mafia don.

He said adequate security was provided to Bajrangi while transferring him from Jhansi jail to Baghpat, and that the transit time between the two locations was nearly 12 hours.

“There was no laxity on part of the UP Police in providing security to Bajrangi,” Singh said.

Mafia don Prem Prakash Singh, alias Munna Bajrangi, was shot dead, hours before he was to be produced in a local court in a case of extorting money from a former BSP legislator, police said.

The UP DGP said a judicial probe was on in the matter and the guilty would not be spared.

Bajrangi was reportedly killed by Sunil Rathi, who is lodged in Baghpat jail since July 31 last year, officials said.

On media reports claiming that Rathi killed the mafia don for calling him ‘chubby’, Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said, “A number of versions have come out...magisterial and judicial probe is on. It will come in the probe report”.

Also commenting on a couple of photographs showing Bajrangi being shot on his head and then on his chest, the official said, “It has come to my notice. It will be included in the probe”.

The photographs have since gone viral on social media.

The principal secretary added that the government was also looking into an application submitted by Bajrangi’s wife accusing former MP Dhananjay Singh, gangster Pradeep Kumar Singh and some others of conspiring to kill her husband.

“An application was given. We will look into it,” he said.

Meanwhile, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav today slammed the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government on “lack” of law and order in the state.

“In present day Uttar Pradesh, there is no law and order, just an atmosphere of panic. The perpetrators have become so confident that they have murdered someone in prison. These are the government’s failures. The people of the state are very scared. The state has never seen such misrule and chaos before,” he tweeted in Hindi.

Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson and senior cabinet minister Sidharth Nath Singh, however, refuted the charges, saying law and order was “definitely better” compared to the SP regime in the state, and that police were hot on the heels of criminals across the state.

Defending the state government, Singh said the jailer, deputy jailer, head warden and warden were suspended without delay, besides ordering a judicial probe in the case. He said the chief minister also called for enhancing security in jails.

51-year-old Bajrangi was listed as an accused in 40 criminal cases, including those of murder and extortion.

The mafia don was also named along with BSP MLA Mukhtar Ansari in the killing of former BJP legislator Krishnanand Rai in 2005.

In 1998, Bajrangi was shot 11 times by sharp shooters of the UP Special Task Force (STF) and Delhi Police in Samaypur Badli area in the national capital and was declared dead. But some signs of life were noticed when his body was being sent to mortuary. He recovered in a hospital despite suffering multiple bullet wounds.

Bajrangi’s murder is also not a case in isolation.

Anurag Tripathi alias Annu, said to be close to a sharpshooter of the Munna Bajrangi gang, was shot at inside Varanasi jail by another murder accused Santosh Gupta on May 13, 2015.

On June 22, 2011, Y C Sachan, a key accused in National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam, was found dead inside Lucknow jail. His body was found in a jail toilet in a sitting position with nine injuries caused by shaving blade. His leather belt was found tied around his neck with its other end tied to window grill.

Presently several gangsters including Babloo Srivastava, Mukhtar Ansari, Brijesh Singh, Monuy Pahadi, Anil Dujana, Chandan Singh, Sanjeev Maheshwari and Shyambabu Pasi are lodged in state’s jails.

Quite a number of them have requested that they be shifted from their present jail, fearing attack by co-inmates or “stage-managed encounters”.