Gangster Sunil Rathi washed his clothes, threw pistol in drain after killing Munna Bajrangi: Police

Murder convict and underworld don Suni Rathi who allegedly shot dead another gangster Munna Bajrangi in Baghpat jail on Monday executed the killing in a pre-planned manner and then tried to destroy evidence in an elaborate exercise, a senior police officer said.

“Rathi confirmed during interrogation that he took a bath and washed his clothes immediately after executing the murder. Before taking bath, he threw the pistol used in the crime in an 8-foot deep drain inside the jail,” the police officer said.

He said Rathi told the police that he threw the pistol in the drain so that his finger prints could not be recovered.

“The pistol, two magazines and 22 cartridges were, however, recovered from the drain after a marathon search of over nine hours. There is a very low probability that his finger prints or gun powder on the pistol will be recovered. It could have helped the police in establishing in the court that the same weapon was used in the crime,” he said.

“Although Rathi told the police that he opened fire on Bajrangi in self-defence after a brawl with him over a petty issue, the availability of pistol, magazines and cartridges suggested that it was smuggled into the jail in a pre-planned manner,” he added.

However, it would be a tough task for the investigators to establish Rathi’s involvement in the court as evidences may have been destroyed, he said.

“Police will have no proper evidence to present before the court if Rathi retracts from his statement during the trial,” the officer added. A senior jail officer said the questioning of Baghpat jail inmates and staff revealed that three prisoners of isolation cell were present when Bajrangi was murdered and they also helped Rathi in destroying evidences.

He said there were 10 enclosures in the isolated cell which had as many prisoners. Bajrangi stayed with one of the 10 prisoners, Vicky Sunehra, in enclosure number 2 while Rathi was in enclosure number 10.

“It was discovered during initial probe that Sunil Rathi enjoyed extra privilege of getting food packets and other daily usage items from outside the jail without any permission from the court,” said a senior IPS official.

He said the supply of food packets was a daily affair and was never checked by the limited staff at Baghpat jail. Police suspect that the pistol and bullets were smuggled into the jail in food packets.

The Baghpat jail has about 30 staffers against a sanctioned strength of 80 to oversee as many as 816 prisoners. The jail has no CCTV or metal detectors at the entrance.