Munna Bajrangi shot dead
The jail in Baghpat where notorious gangster Munna Bajrangi was shot deadANI

In an incident that raises serious questions on the security arrangements inside jail premises, notorious gangster Munna Bajrangi was shot dead by another convict in a district jail in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, on Monday, July 9.

Bajrangi was set to be produced before a court in Baghpat and had been moved from the Jhansi jail on Sunday, July 8.

Bajrangi's lawyer V Srivastava confirmed that the gangster had been shot dead. "He was brought to District Jail Baghpat from Jhansi last (Sunday) night. At 6.30 am today, a convict lodged in the jail shot him dead and hid the pistol in a gutter. Few days ago, we had made UP CM aware of threat to his life," Zee News quoted him as saying.

After the murder came to light, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath ordered an inquiry and also suspended the jailor for the lapse. "Such an incident occurring inside jail premises is a serious matter. We will conduct an in-depth investigation and strict action will be taken against those responsible," he said.

Who was Munna Bajrangi?

  1. Born in the Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh in 1967, his original name was Prem Prakash Singh.
  2. He is known to have studied till the fifth standard and reportedly always wanted to be a gangster.
  3. Bajrangi developed a fondness for weapons at an early age and a criminal case was filed against him when he was just 17. He was accused of violence and possession of illegal arms.
  4. He then went on to work for criminal Gajraj Singh from Jaunpur and committed the first murder in 1984.
  5. Before the buzz around this murder could even die down, Bajrangi is known to have killed BJP leader Ramchandra Singh.
  6. Bajrangi then joined Mukhtar Ansari's gang and is said to have worked on his instructions.
  7. He was asked to eliminate BJP's Krishnanand Rai, after which he is said to have killed the BJP leader on November 29, 2005. Six other people also lost their lives in the attack.
  8. He was then declared a "most wanted" criminal and carried a bounty of Rs 7 lakh.
  9. He then moved to Mumbai to evade the police and even made a few foreign visits.
  10. Bajrangi was arrested by a team of the Delhi Police from the Malad area in Mumbai on October 29, 2009.

The gangster's murder comes days after his wife Seema Singh had said that there was a threat to his life. Alerting the police as well as Adityanath, she had said that a plot was being hatched to kill her husband. "I want to tell UP CM Adityanath ji that my husband's life is in danger. A conspiracy is being hatched to kill him in a fake encounter," ANI had quoted her as saying.