Gangsters of Uttar Pradesh

Ever since the Yogi Adityanath government started hunting down gangsters in various parts of Uttar Pradesh, many absconding gangsters have started surrendering out of fear that they will meet the same fate. Deepak, who was wanted for looting bank employees in Shamli, recently surrendered in the Charthawal police station of Muzaffarnagar. Prison, after all, is considered a safe haven from rival gangs and a place to bide their time till a favourable regime comes to power.

That this was a misconception was made clear earlier this week when Prem Prakash Singh, aka gangster Munna Bajrangi, was shot dead by another gangster Sunil Rathi inside the Bagpat Jail. Just a day before Munna was gunned down, he was shifted from Jhansi jail to Bagpat to present him before a local court in connection with an extortion case for allegedly demanding money from former Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Lokesh Dixit in 2017.

The 51-year-old Munna Bajrangi had a prolific career as a gangster. He was named in at least 24 criminal cases, many of which were for murder and extortion. This includes the killing of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Krishnand Rai in 2005. Munna’s wife, Seema Singh, had warned the authorities that her husband would be murdered. This premonition, in retrospect, doesn’t seem to be without reason. “It was a custodial murder and a planned conspiracy hatched by the Uttar Pradesh police and jail officials. Several persons, including a former Member of Parliament, are behind the murder of my husband,” Singh alleged in a presser.

While Seema feared for her husband’s life, Rai’s wife expressed her satisfaction at the killing of her husband’s alleged murderer. In broad daylight in Bhanwarkol area of Ghazipur district, then BJP MLA Rai along with six others, including his police gunner, were killed when allegedly Munna, had riddled them with bullets with his AK-47 rifle in November 2005.

The jail authorities, however, are finding it difficult to explain: How did a gun make its way inside the jail? Adityanath has stated that breach of security is a “serious” matter and has already ordered the suspension of the jailer, deputy jailer and various other jail functionaries. “Such an incident occurring inside jail premises is a serious matter. Will conduct an in-depth investigation and strict action to be taken against those responsible,” he retorted.

The gangster, Sunil Rathi has confessed to a sequence of events that led to Munna’s death. According to Rathi, he was able to snatch Munna’s gun and pumped 10 bullets, three of which pierced his skull. Additional Director General (Law and Order) Anand Kumar said, “As many as 10 used cartridges, 2 magazines and 22 live cartridges have also been recovered.” Ten empty shells of a .762 bore weapon and some live cartridges were recovered from inside the district jail and the pistol used was found in a drain nearby.

The investigations are still at a preliminary stage, but Munna’s killing will surely have political repercussions given the fact that he was close to gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari and the two were also allegedly involved in killing the BJP leader Rai. Flexing of muscle power has become the norm in this part of the country with all the leading political parties naming candidates with criminal records in the last Assembly elections. Munna too tried his luck in electoral politics, as did his wife Seema without much success from Jaunpur.

A school dropout, Munna belonged to Poore Dayal village in Jaunpur, and started early. He was only a teenager in 1982 when he was charged with an attempt to murder and loot. He was soon part of the murky world of organised crime of Eastern Uttar Pradesh that has given us the likes of dons such as Sri Prakash Shukla, Harishankar Tiwari, and of course Mukhtar Ansari. Munna’s influence cut across India.

He had many faceoffs with police and rival gangs, and had managed to survive. In 1998, an absconder, Munna suffered serious bullet injuries in a gun battle with a UP Special Task Force team in Delhi. In 2004, he jumped bail and was on the run for years. Subsequent investigations have revealed that many of the murders carried out by Munna were to settle political scores. Ironically, his own killing, the political grapevine speculates is an outcome of some sort of a political settlement.

The half-baked information shared by police makes the death seem like collateral damage in a gang war, and not politically motivated. Rathi was known to Munna and they allegedly ran separate extortion rackets from within prison. They seemed to have a congenial relationship, with Rathi calling Munna his “older brother”. Things got ugly, allegedly, when Munna demanded money from an associate of Rathi’s, and this murder was an outcome of growing hostility between the two.

Munna received the farewell of a hero, though. A day after his murder, Munna was cremated by his 14-year-old son at the Manikarnika Ghat amidst tight security with hundreds thronging the streets of Varanasi. But the controversy surrounding his murder refuses to die.

It seems even gangsters aren’t safe under the Adityanath government, even those who find themselves in a secure prison.