A desperate man,known for his high-profile contract killings,Uttar Pradesh gangster Munna Bajrangi aka Prem Prakash Singh was picked up from Mumbai on Thursday after a concerted three-year effort that was aimed at keeping Delhi out of Bajrangis influence,the police have said. But a defiant Bajrangi,outside a city court in Delhi that sent him to 10 days in police custody on Friday,openly stated that he would continue to eliminate his enemies and would subsequently join politics. Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal said on Friday: He was a top extortionist. Nobody dared cross him for fear of reprisal. Bajrangi's signature style was killing his target in a moving car," Elaborating on the arrest,Dadwal said: A systematic analysis of every possible clue related to his movements revealed that Munna was hiding in Malad,Mumbai. A team was sent on October 21. Bajrangi and his associate Mahendra Ayare were arrested following inputs that they were trying to extort money from a Delhi businessman. Bajrangi,Dadwal said,is allegedly involved in 18 cases of murder,attempt to murder,and robbery in UP and Delhi. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the UP Police had declared rewards of Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively for his head. Bajrangi,from Jaunpur,announced his arrival on the crime scene in the mid 90s when he gunned down BJP leader Ram Chander Singh and his official bodyguard. In September 1998,he was intercepted by a team of Delhi Police officers and arrested after a gunbattle. However,he jumped bail and went underground. In 2003,he also allegedly murdered BJP leader Anil Rai in Varanasi. The most serious charge yet,one being probed by the CBI,is Bajrangis involvement in the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai,whom he gunned down on November 29,2005 in Ghazipur. He at once killed Rais police gunman and five supporters. Jailed MLA Mukhtar Ansari was named key conspirator in the case. A senior police officer said: The Special Cell has been on him for the last three years,soon after we came to know that Bajrangi would target Delhi businessmen. The police picked him up from his apartment in the Siddhi Vinayak Society in Malad West,where Bajrangi has lived for the last few years with his wife and two children.
