Gangster accused of 7 murders stabs and kills fellow inmate in Delhi jail

The prisoner who stands accused of the murder is Vicky Pehalwan alias Raghunath, 29, one of western Uttar Pradesh’s most wanted gangsters until his arrest in March 2020. Since then, he has gained notoriety among prison inmates as the man with the maximum number of murder cases against him

On Friday afternoon, in ward number 3 of Delhi’s Mandoli jail, a 39-year-old prisoner was stabbed in the head, allegedly by two prisoners, and the man succumbed to injuries the following day at the Guru Teg Bahadur hospital.

Following Friday’s murder, prison officers have shifted Raghunath to a high-security ward within the prison. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The prisoner who stands accused of the murder is Vicky Pehalwan alias Raghunath, 29, one of western Uttar Pradesh’s most wanted gangsters until his arrest in March 2020. Since then, he has gained notoriety among prison inmates as the man with the maximum number of murder cases against him — jail officers say the killing of the 39-year-old undertrial prisoner Manjeet alias Manu is the eighth such case against Raghunath in the past five years.

According to the jailers, Raghunath and his accomplice Imran alias Golu used a knife, improvised from a tin sheet, to grievously wound Manjeet.

Records on the status of these cases were not immediately available for verification, but jailers said these murders took place in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

Following Friday’s murder, prison officers have shifted Raghunath to a high-security ward within the prison. Police investigation has revealed that Raghunath planned Manjeet’s murder for two reasons – Manjeet had stabbed Raghunath’s friend Jojo (identified only by his first name) inside Tihar last year and Manjeet also bullied Imran inside Mandoli jail.

Officers of the Delhi Police special cell, who arrested him in March 2020, said Raghunath is a key member of Ankit Gujjar-Rohit Chaudhary gang.

Gujjar, 29, one of western Uttar Pradesh’s most wanted men, was allegedly beaten to death by prison officers inside jail 3 on August 3. The prison department informed the court that Gujjar and two others were injured in a scuffle that broke out after jail officers confiscated a cellphone, data cable, and a knife from Gujjar’s cell. The Gujjar-Chaudhary gang of south Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh is involved in cases of extortion, murders, robbery and contract killings, among other heinous crimes, the police said.

“Raghunath is hot-headed even within the gang and he is a resident of Muradnagar in Ghaziabad. We found his involvement in seven murder cases when we arrested him from the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road on March 6, 2020. He then told us that he comes from a poor family and was introduced to Gujjar by a mutual friend in 2014. After Gujjar’s death, he became the de facto head of the gang along with jailed gangster Rohit Chaudhary,” said a police officer, who asked not to be named.

Delhi Police officers who have questioned Raghunath in the past said both Gujjar and Rohit gang used Raghunath as their hitman.

According to the police, Raghunath was involved in the murder of gangster Prince Chaudhary outside Saket mall on May 6, 2019. Prince, who was Rohit’s main rival, was shot dead allegedly by Raghunath and others, at the bidding of Rohit Chaudhary and Gujjar.

“Gujjar again took Raghunath’s help to murder his political rival and local BJP leader Vinod Pandit, during the panchayat elections in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, on July 19,2019. It is difficult to reform prisoners like Raghunath,”said a Delhi Police officer, asking not to be named.

But prisons expert Sunil Gupta, who worked as the law officer in Tihar jail for over three decades, disagree.

“The jail officers have two responsibilities — safety of prisoners and their rehabilitation. If the man has murdered eight people so far, then he should be shifted to a high security prison where he does not get to interact with other inmates. Secondly, they should counsel and advise him to join a vipassana or meditation. It works in most cases. For those lodged in terror cases, we took the help of experts to “de-radicalise” them,” said Gupta.