CBI to probe Bajrangi’s murder in jail

Lucknow, February 25

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday ordered a CBI probe into the custodial death of notorious sharpshooter Prem Prakash Singh alias Munna Bajrangi inside Baghpat jail on July 9, 2018. The court decision came on a petition filed by Bajrangi’s wife Seema Singh, alleging that the jail officials had plotted a larger conspiracy to eliminate her husband.

A day before the murder, Bajrangi (51) was brought to the Baghpat jail from Jhansi in connection with a court hearing related to an extortion threat. He was shot dead reportedly by jail inmate Sunil Rathi. The then jailer Uday Pratap Singh, Deputy Jailor Shivaji Yadav, Head Warder Arjinder Singh and warder Madhav Kumar were suspended for dereliction of duty.

Jailer Uday Pratap Singh had lodged a case of murder against Rathi. A charge-sheet has already been filed in the case and the trial is on in the court of district judge Ram Manohar Narain Mishra. Bajrangi had more than 40 cases of murder, extortion, and kidnapping against him.

Days before his murder, his wife Seema Singh had said at a press conference in Lucknow on June 29 that there was threat to her husband’s life. She had alleged that an STF officer and some influential politicians were conspiring to get rid of him in a fake encounter. Days later, Bajrangi was killed barely nine hours after he was brought to Baghpat.

Bajrangi was arrested from Malaad in Mumbai in 2009 for the murder of BJP Mohammadabad MLA Krishnanad Rai in 2005, reportedly at the behest of don-turned-politician and Mau MLA Mukhtar Ansari, who is currently lodged in the Banda jail. — TNS