CBI lens on money trail between Ankit Gujjar’s kin, Tihar jail staff

The federal agency found that Gujjar’s kin paid at least ₹2 lakh to three different bank accounts on March 22, 23, 29, 30 and April 4 in 2021, officials said, requesting anonymity.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has found evidence that the family of gangster Ankit Gujjar, who was found murdered inside Delhi’s Tihar jail in August last year, had indirectly paid protection money to prison wardens, officers aware of the investigation said on Saturday.

Gujjar was allegedly beaten to death by wardens inside jail 3 on August 3, 2021. (Sourced)

The federal agency found that Gujjar’s kin paid at least ₹2 lakh to three different bank accounts on March 22, 23, 29, 30 and April 4 in 2021, officials said, requesting anonymity.

The money was paid to different UPI accounts in the name of Rizwan Ahmed, Anshul Bedi and an unnamed person. Apart from these online transactions, the bureau is also probing allegations that ₹50,000 was paid outside Tihar’s jail number 3 to a person named Rishi sometime in May 2021.

The central investigators are probing alleged links between the owners of these UPI accounts and officers of Tihar jail, where Gujjar was imprisoned until his murder last year.

On Friday, the CBI told a city court that they were likely to register a separate case of extortion against jailers. A murder case has already been filed against prison officials. Delhi Police in August last year filed the first information report in the case that was transferred to the CBI on September 8.

While the CBI have completed the murder investigation, it was still probing the extortion angle and may file a separate FIR to investigate it, the lawyer appearing for CBI told the court on Friday.

“The CBI found proof of ₹10,000 transferred on March 22 and ₹5,000 on March 26. 2021. Three days later, Gujjar’s family again transferred ₹25,000 in three different instalments to a UPI account in name of Rizwan Siddiqui. This second transfer was done on Holi, and was reportedly part of the fund that some accused jail officers received for the festival from Gujjar,” said an official aware of the probe details. “The following day, on March 30, there were three different transactions of ₹10,000 each to another UPI account. All these transactions are documented.”

If the CBI files an extortion case in Ankit Gujjar case, it will be the second one of 2021 in which prison wardens will be probed for extortion or taking bribes from prisoners.

Delhi Police and the Enforcement Directorate, which investigates financial crimes, have arrested jailors for taking bribes from another inmate, Sukesh Chandrashekhar. Chandrashekhar, 32, was arrested by Delhi Police in 2017 for allegedly duping an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader of ₹2 crore on the pretext of helping the politician retain the party’s two leaves election symbol by bribing Election Commission officers.

Gujjar, 29, was allegedly beaten to death by wardens inside jail 3 on August 3. His family members said Gujjar was killed for failing to pay protection money to jailers. His sister has said Gujjar had called her a day before his death and said he feared for his life.

But the prison department said Gujjar and two others were injured in scuffle that broke out after wardens confiscated a cell phone, data cable, and a knife inside Gujjar’s cell.

Until his arrest in August 2020, Gujjar was one of western Uttar Pradesh’s most wanted criminals. Accused in at least eight murder cases and numerous other criminal cases, Gujjar carried a reward of ₹1.25 lakh at the time of his arrest, of which ₹1 lakh was announced by Uttar Pradesh police and ₹25,000 by Delhi Police.

In the murder case, a deputy superintendent of prison has been named as prime accused. The officer, along with at least three other junior jailers, have been suspended.

As part of the probe, the CBI has recorded the statements of at least 49 witnesses, including six prisoners who claimed to have seen jail officials beating Gujjar, Gujjar’s three family members who transferred the money, and other people connected to the case.