Delhi: Murder charges framed against 6 former Tihar jail officials over gangster's murder in 2021

A Delhi court has charged six ex-Tihar Jail officials with murder in the brutal 2021 assault of gangster Ankit Gujjar over extortion disputes.

A Delhi court has framed murder charges against six former Tihar Jail officials, including Narender Meena, the then deputy superintendent of jail, for the alleged brutal assault and murder of gangster Ankit Gujjar inside the jail in August 2021 for “failing to yield to their extortion demands”.

The judge emphasised that there were reasons to believe that such lathis were carried by the accused for using criminal force on Gujjar and two other inmates. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The city court even questioned the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for dropping the “murder” charge under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in its investigation report, which only found the officials guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304(II) of the IPC.

The order passed by special judge Sanjay Jindal on Monday said it was clear that Gujjar was subjected to “extortion by the accused jail officials” and after he refused to pay more money, they “developed a grudge against him”, following which he was brutally assaulted.

The accused include Ram Avtar Meena and Deepak Dabas, then assistant superintendents; Dinesh Chhikara, the head warder; and Harfool Meena and Vinod Meena, the wardens. Following the incident, they were suspended for alleged misconduct by the then director general of prisons, Sandeep Goel.

“The deceased Ankit Gujjar was beaten by the multiple accused persons for several minutes with multiple weapons in the form of polycarbonate lathis by giving multiple blows,” the court said.

The judge emphasised that there were reasons to believe that such lathis were carried by the accused for using criminal force on Gujjar and two other inmates.

While there was nothing on record to suggest that such lathis were readily available at the spot and were used spontaneously, the court stated, “… the beatings were given on various parts on the body of the deceased including several vital parts as it is so clear from the details of injuries given in the postmortem report… it is also evident from the record that medical care was denied to the deceased after the incident”.

The court also noted that the initial FIR lodged at the Hari Nagar police station was registered under IPC section 302 (murder), but the CBI’s chargesheet was filed under IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), among other offences.

“There is no explanation in the chargesheet as to on what basis section 304 has been invoked, and section 302 has been dropped. Simply because the IO has not invoked section 302 IPC in the chargesheet, it cannot be said that the ingredients of the said offence cannot be considered by this court,” the court said.

Observing that it was strange why CBI had not included the offence of extortion in its chargesheet, the court went on to separately frame section 384 (extortion) of the IPC against Narender.

On the intervening night of August 3 and 4, 2021, Gujjar, a gangster facing trial for multiple cases of murder and under the Gangster Act, was allegedly assaulted along with his two co-inmates, Gurpreet and Gurjeet. Gujjar succumbed to his injuries on August 4.

The court said that Narender had allegedly demanded ₹2 lakh from Gujjar, to be paid to him through Gujjar’s subordinates.

CBI claimed that Narender and the other accused were “denied proper medical treatment” to the victims after the assault and even “concealed information” regarding Gujjar’s health from his family.

The Delhi high court had on August 8, 2021, transferred the probe from Delhi Police to CBI after Gujjar’s kin filed a writ petition demanding an impartial probe by an independent agency.