LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday declined a petition seeking transfer of the gangster Munna Bajrangi murder case to the CBI.
Justice SD Singh declined the petition on technical grounds, saying only a division bench had the authority to hand the case over to the CBI.
The petition was filed on behalf of Bajrangi's widow Seema Singh who had given a police complaint after the murder of the don. It named a couple of eastern UP musclemen, including former lawmaker Brijesh Singh and gangster Pradeep Singh, whom she suspected to have a role in Bajrangi's killing.
While rejecting the plea to refer the case to the division bench, the judge said Bajrangi’s family could file a fresh petition before the division bench to demand the CBI probe.
Gangster Prem Prakash Singh aka Munna Bajrangi was shot dead by another gangster Sunil Rathi inside Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district jail on Monday. Bajrangi and Rathi were kept in the same isolation cell. Bajrangi's wife Seema Singh has demanded nothing less than a CBI probe into the assassination.
Seema had earlier alleged that a conspiracy was being hatched by the Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh police to eliminate her husband.
Advocate Swati Agarwal, who had earlier filed a petition regarding Bajrangi's security, requested the court to take suo motu cognizance of the murder.
Three-member panel to probe murder
Taking a strong note of the assassination inside a jail premises, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has constituted a three-member committee headed by former DGP Sulkhan Singh on Tuesday night.
Former ADG, Prison, Hari Shankar and IG, Prison, Dr Sharad are the other members. The committee was told to look into the security and reforms in jails and submit an elaborate report in two months to the administration.
The state government has ordered a judicial and a magisterial probe into the killing of the don. An additional probe has now been ordered to inquire into other aspects, including how the weapon was smuggled into the jail and the status of jammers and CCTV camera in the jail.