Ankit Chauhan case: Two more arrested, murder of retired cop also solved

Two men were also earlier arrested on June 2 in the 2015 murder of a techie in Noida

The Uttar Pradesh special task force (STF) on Sunday arrested two more people in the Ankit Chauhan murder case. One of them had roped in the three men who had intercepted Chauhan and his friend in April 2015 in a bid to loot their Fortuner SUV. Chauhan was shot dead in the incident.

Satte (left) and his accomplice Pawan Sharma arrested were arrested on Sunday by the special task force.

More than two years after the incident, a joint team of STF and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claimed to have cracked the case with the arrest of techie Shashank Jadaun and Manoj Kumar on June 2. Another accomplice allegedly involved in the murder was Pankaj, a Ghaziabad resident, who died of multiple organ failure five months ago.

Tracking the others involved in the case, an STF team on Sunday arrested Satpal alias Satte and his accomplice Pawan Sharma who are also allegedly involved in other such crimes. STF officials said Satte was in touch with Pankaj and had ordered him to steal a Fortuner to settle a previous debt.

“It was to settle the debt that the three went looking for a SUV and cornered Chauhan in Sector 76, Noida. Chauhan was shot dead by Jadaun,” said Rajiv Narayan Mishra, additional superintendent of police, STF.

“Satte and another man, Anit alias Tota, also confessed to killing a retired Delhi Police
sub inspector (SI) at Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad. It was Pankaj who had ordered the hit as he had a previous rivalry with the retired SI. The SI’s two sons were murdered several years ago and
he was pursuing their cases,” he added.

Jwala Prasad, the retired SI, was murdered in February 2015 at Ghaziabad. His two sons, Jyoti and Rajeev, were killed eight years before that.

STF officials said Satte and his accomplice Sharma are linked to the Anil Dujana gang and also involved in smuggling liquor from Haryana.

“They snatched cars and SUVs and provided them to criminal gangs and liquor mafias. Satte has 10 cases of serious crimes against him in Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar and Bulandshahr. His accomplice Sharma has four cases of attempt to murder and Arms Act against him in Gautam Budh Nagar,” Mishra said.

During initial questioning, Satte told the police that he came in touch with Pankaj when they worked together with a private bank for loan recovery of financed cars. Later, they got involved in carjacking and came in contact with the Anil Dujana gang. The police also recovered two pistols and several live cartridges from the two. A Polo and Santro, suspected to be stolen, were also recovered from them.