Death of 3 gangsters in UP jail: FIRs against Anshu Dixit for shooting gangsters, opening fire on cops

On Friday morning, gangster Anshu Dixit allegedly shot dead two other inmates – gangsters Mukeem Kala and Sirajudeen, alias Siraj – and then held five others at gunpoint as hostages before being shot by the police.

While the total capacity at the 60 prisons is 24,000, they currently house a total of 36,000 inmates.

3 min readLucknowMay 16, 2021 04:20 AM IST First published on: May 16, 2021 at 04:20 AM IST

A day after the death of three gangsters inside high-security barracks of Chitrakoot district jail, two separate FIRs were registered on Saturday at Karwi police station in the district.

On Friday morning, gangster Anshu Dixit allegedly shot dead two other inmates – gangsters Mukeem Kala and Sirajudeen, alias Siraj – and then held five others at gunpoint as hostages before being shot by the police.

The first case — of murder — was filed by Superintendent of Chitrakoot jail, S P Tripathi, against Anshu Dixit for allegedly killing Mukeem and Sirajudeen.

A second case — attempt to murder — was filed by Karwi police station SHO, Virendra Tripahti, against Anshu Dixit for allegedly firing on police personnel.

Circle Officer, City (Chitrakoot), Shitla Prasad Pandey said the probe will look into how a .9-mm pistol used in the crime reached the jail. The weapon has been seized and will be sent to laboratory for examination, he said.

“The probe will also look into the motive behind the killings. We have recovered the broken body of a cellphone inside the jail; the hardware inside it was missing. It could not be established who had thrown the broken phone in the washroom,” Pandey said.

Inspector General, Chitrakoot Dham, K Satya Narayan, said that CCTV at the crime site was not working. He added that investigations are under way in both cases.

Asked about the number of injuries on the bodies of the deceased, I-G Satya Narayan said, “I have not seen the postmortem report so far.”

On Saturday, bodies of all three were handed over to their families after postmortem.

Satya Narayan said Mukeem Kala’s family took the body to Punjab, where the final rites will be conducted.

Alleging that these were encounter killings, Mukeem’s mother Meena told mediapersons, “If even a spoon is not allowed inside the jail how did a weapon come inside? I am sure the police got my son and the others killed in encounter inside jail.”

In late-night development on Friday, the state government posted DIG, Jail (headquarters), Sanjeev Tripathi as DIG prisons (Allahabad Range). He has also been given charge as DIG (Ayodhya range). Ashok Kumar Sagar has been made the jail superintendent and C P Tripathi asked to join as jailor of Chitrakoot jail.

Sagar was earlier posted in Kasganj and Tripahti in Ayodhya.

On Friday evening, the state government had suspended Chitrakoot jail superintendent Tripathi and jailor Mahendra Pal.