Gujjar murder case: Gangster plotting to kill jail official held

Delhi police said they arrested Satte (28) after they came across an audio clip in which two men are heard discussing about arranging an AK-47 rifle.

An alleged Delhi gangster, who was plotting to kill a jail officer to avenge his accomplice Ankit Gujjar’s death inside the Tihar jail, was arrested from outer ring road at Chirag Delhi, said Delhi police on Tuesday.

Police said the phone conversation between the two men was widely circulated on social media after which they launched a probe.

Police said Satender alias Satte, was also trying to arrange an AK-47 rifle to murder a Tihar jail deputy superintendent and avenge the killing of Gujjar, who was lodged in jail number 3 and was found dead on August 4. Delhi police have registered a murder case against the deputy superintendent of the prison but are yet to arrest anyone in the case.

Delhi police said they arrested Satte (28) after they came across an audio clip in which two men are heard discussing about arranging an AK-47 rifle. Police said the phone conversation between the two men was widely circulated on social media after which they launched a probe.

Satte, police said, is involved in more than 20 criminal cases such as murder, robbery and snatching. He is allegedly a sharpshooter of south Delhi’s Ankit Gujjar - Rohit Chaudhary gang. Gujjar was working with Chaudhary before his arrest in August last year. The two men, according to police, were trying to expand their footprint across Delhi. The gang is accused of crimes such as extortion, contract killings, robbery, land grabbing and snatching.

“We identified the people involved in the conversation as Satte alias Satender and his accomplice Ajay Gujjar. In the clip, Satte is asking his accomplice to arrange an AK-47 rifle as he wanted to cause harm to the deputy superintendent. On August 17, we received information about Satender visiting a park near the outer ring road in Chirag Delhi to meet his accomplices. We laid a trap and arrested him from the spot. He was carrying a pistol and six live cartridges. We are questioning him to find his accomplices and the possible threat to any other person’s life, including the jail officer,” said a senior police officer who asked not be named.

Satte, who was last arrested in 2019 for the murder of his rival in Saket, came out on interim bail last month. Police said Satte is involved in cases of extorting money from property dealers, gambling operators, bookies and builders.

Gujjar (29) was found dead in his cell on the morning of August 4. Until his arrest in August 2020, Gujjar was one of the most wanted persons in western Uttar Pradesh. Police have in the past described Gujjar as a top gangster with at least eight murder cases registered against him. Jail officers, in their statement to police, have said that on August 3, the deputy superintendent and other guards conducted a search inside Gujjar’s cell and found a cell phone and a knife.

The officers alleged that Gujjar slapped the deputy superintendent after which the prison guards used “minimum force” to restrain him and put him in a different cell. Gujjar was found dead the following morning. However, Gujjar’s family has accused prison officials of extortion and also submitted a clip, in which Gujjar is purportedly heard telling his sister about the threat to his life, as he was unable to pay the jail officers.