In a political twist, slain don's wife names mantri

Lucknow: The murder of gangster Munna Bajrangi inside Baghpat district jail took a political colour on Tuesday with his wife Seema Singh naming and charging top Uttar Pradesh politicians of being involved in the conspiracy to eliminate her husband.

Ms Singh has, in her complaint to the police, claimed that those involved in the conspiracy of her husband’s murder include Union minister Manoj Sinha, BJP MLC Sushil Singh, BJP MLA Alka Rai, former MP Dhananjay Singh, retired police officer Jayant Singh and his son Pradeep Singh.

Manoj Sinha is minister of state with independent charge of communications and Ghazipur MP.

Demanding a CBI probe into her husband’s murder, Ms Singh said, “I want people to know who are the politicians who conspired to murder my husband. The police may or may not investigate on this line but the fact is that my husband was preparing for a political career and these politicians were feeling threatened”.

She also demanded a CBI probe because, she said, the state police is part of the conspiracy.

Munna Bajrangi’s murder took place a week after Ms Singh had alleged in a press conference that her husband’s life was in danger.

Ms Singh claimed on Tuesday that first a case was registered against her husband in Baghpat and then he was brought here for the hearing. Sunil Rathi, the murder accused, had already been shifted to Baghpat jail last year.

Ms Singh said that she had never heard of her husband’s rivalry with Sunil Rathi and it was obvious that he had been hired to kill him.

Meanwhile, the pistol used in the murder of Munna Bajrangi was recovered late on Monday night from a toilet drain in Baghpat jail.

ADG (law and order) Anand Kumar said that 10 used cartridges, two magazines and 22 live cartridges have also been recovered.

Sunil Rathi, the gangster who shot Munna Bajrangi inside the jail, has told the police and that Bajrangi and he were having tea together when Munna asked him if he had been given a contract to kill him.

“Munna Bajrangi took out his pistol, but before he could shoot me, I snatched the weapon and shot him,” he said.

On Monday, however, officials had claimed that Sunil Rathi had attacked Munna Bajrangi after the latter called him “fatty”. “He called me ‘fatty’ and then I pumped all bullets on his head,” Rathi was quoted as saying.

Bajrangi, 51, who was named in 24 criminal cases, including murder and extortion, was to be produced in a local court on Monday in an extortion case for allegedly demanding money from former BSP MLA Lokesh Dixit in 2017.

While Munna Bajrangi had unsuccessfully contested the 2012 Assembly polls from Mariyahu seat in Jaunpur on an Apna Dal ticket and was a close associate of BSP turncoat Mukhtar Ansari, Sunil Rathi’s mother Rajbala Chaudhary contested from Chhaprauli seat in 2017 Assembly elections on a BSP ticket. She lost to RLD candidate Sahendra Ramala.