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Munna Bajrangi murder: CBI team questions Jhansi jail officials for two days
LUCKNOW A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team questioned Jhansi district jail officials for two consecutive days, on Wednesday and Thursday, in connection
LUCKNOW A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team questioned Jhansi district jail officials for two consecutive days, on Wednesday and Thursday, in connection with the murder of Prem Prakash Singh alias ‘Munna Bajrangi’ who was shot dead in Baghpat jail reportedly by another gangster Sunil Rathi lodged in the same jail on July 9, 2018.
CBI officials suspected the involvement of some personnel of Jhansi district jail where Bajrangi was lodged for over three years before being shifted to Baghpat district jail on the night of July 8, 2018, said sources privy to investigation.
Bajrangi was murdered within a few hours after been shifted to the Baghpat jail and photographs of his bullet riddled body had gone viral early on July 9, 2018 morning.
Sources said as many as eight jail personnel, including jail guards and deputy jailers, were questioned about Bajrangi’s stay in Jhansi district jail.
“They were questioned about the circumstances under which Bajrangi was shifted to Baghpat jail even when he had apprehended threat to his life,” said an official, adding, “Moreover, Bajrangi’s wife Seema Singh had held a press conference in Lucknow apprehending threat to his life 10 days before the incident.”
A senior CBI official said earlier the investigators visited Baghpat district jail on March 10 and 11 to know the reasons behind Bajrangi’s shifting. Thereafter, they visited the Jhansi district jail after getting clues about the request from the Jhansi district jail authorities for his court appearance in an extortion case lodged by a local politician in Baghpat.
The CBI had registered an FIR in the matter on March 7, 2020 in compliance of Allahabad high court order dated February 25, 2020.
He said the CBI team was likely to reconstruct the entire sequence of incidents of Bajrangi’s shifting from Jhansi to Baghpat district jail.
Notably, the Allahabad high court had directed the CBI to file a progress report on the investigation on the next date of hearing on April 20. The Bench comprising Justice Sudhir Agarwal and Justice Rajeev Mishra passed the order on a petition filed by Bajrangi’s wife Seema Singh.
The petitioner’s contention was that there might be involvement of some mafia in the murder. The petitioner had demanded that the role of jail officials was doubtful and therefore, the investigation must be transferred to the CBI.
Bajrangi, a gangster from eastern UP, was lodged in jail since 2009 in connection with the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai at Mohamadabad of Ghazipur district on Novemeber 29, 2005 and another BJP leader Ramchandra Singh.
