Author: HT Correspondent and Agencies
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: December 3, 2005
Introduction: Police say they've enough to nail Munna
The probe into the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai suggests that ganglord Munna Bajrangi was given a contract (supari) to finish off Rai. Munna, whose ruthlessness has already earned him a special mention on the websites of the UP police and the Special Task Force (STF), did his job well, STF sources said.
"Bajrangi may have been given a supari to eliminate Rai, whose growing stature has ruffled the feathers of many rival politicians," an official of the Uttar Pradesh police Special Task Force said.
Senior SP of STF Akhil Kumar told reporters that before the murder, the STF had information that Bajrangi and his accomplice Firdaus, used to visit Mohammadabad and were in regular touch with controversial independent MLA from Mau, Mukhtar Ansari.
He also claimed that his team has "sufficient
clues" that Ansari and Bajrangi were behind the sensational crime. Bajrangi,
carries a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head as does Firdaus. The police have
released an old photograph of Bajrangi. Fears that he might have sneaked across
to neighbouring Bihar or Nepal have led the police to seek the Interpol's
help.
On the involvement of controversial MLA Mukhtar Ansari in the murder, lodged
in Ghazipur district jail after an FIR was filed in connection with the Dussehra
communal riots in Mau, the police said, "it is a matter of investigation".
Prem Prakash Singh alias Munna Bajrangi, in
his mid-forties, has been a terror in Purvanchal for over a decade now. His
men have shot dead many traders of Varanasi, who refuse to meet his extortion
demands. Though a case of murder was lodged against him in Jaunpur in 1984,
he has gone on to extort money from traders with impunity.
He announced his arrival on the UP crime scene in 1996 when he gunned down
BJP leader Ram Chander Singh and his official bodyguard in Jaunpur. In the
same year, the STF of UP caught him in an encounter in Noida. But his enormous
clout in political circles bailed him out. The NHRC intervened, allegedly
at the behest of a national-level politician, and the gangster was given medical
treatment.
In 2003, he killed local BJP leader Anil Rai and four others including his
official bodyguard in Varanasi. Later, he came in contact with Mukhtar Ansari
gang and took on the Brijesh Singh gang. Bajrangi's signature style was killing
his target in a moving car. BJP MLA, Rai, was also killed in the same manner.