On the morning of July 9, seven gunshots rang inside a barrack in Baghpat jail, which ended the life of dreaded ganglord Prem Prakash Singh alias Munna Bajrangi, and perhaps started a new chapter in the gang war that has spawned a bloody trail in the badlands of eastern Uttar Pradesh since the 1980s.
Right after the sensational murder, fingers were pointed at incarcerated mafia don-turned lawmaker, Brijesh Singh. And not without a reason. Singh has had a running feud with yet another jailed mafia lord-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari, whose henchman Bajrangi was.
The political affiliations of Singh and Ansari have given an interesting angle to the whole episode. While Ansari is a BSP MLA, Singh got elected as Independent MLC from Varanasi, but several of his family members are associated with the BJP. Fears are being expressed that the shots that fell Bajrangi could end the lull a decade’s lull in the gang war. The addition of Ansari’s AK-47 wielding ‘executioner’ is just the latest addition to the body count that the rivalry between the two gangs—active in areas around Varanasi—has seen in the past over two decades.
Having started off as a weaving assistant in his Janunpur village, Bajrangi made an entry into the police records when he bumped off a person accused of killing his father. That was way back in 1982, when he was just 15. A year later, he allegedly killed a meat seller over a payment dispute and ran away to Mumbai.
In 1983, 14 petrol pumps were looted in Mumbai on a single night. Bajrangi was said to be the behind the feat. He was arrested by Mumbai police and left for his home state after getting bail. Around 1994, Bajrangi came into contact with Ansari of Ghazipur, a budding cricketer who had been dabbling into the crime world. The story goes that once Bajrangi accidently shot himself in the foot from his katta (country-made pistol) and didn’t have money for treatment. Ansari paid his medical bill.
Bajrangi paid back for this kindness in an exaggerated way, falling like a wrath on Ansari’s rivals. But the notoriety he gained was for the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005. He and his accomplices surrounded the vehicles of Rai and his six aides and fired around 500 bullets from their AK-47, pumping 100 bullets into Rai’s body. For Ansari, it was his biggest feat. Rai was considered close to Brijesh Singh, who was on the run and operate from outside UP. After this, Bajrangi went off the police radar. Finally, Delhi Police arrested him in 2009.
In the meantime, his mentor Ansari had already been arrested by the CBI for Rai’s murder. Later, Singh was also arrested from Odisha in 2008. They are lodged in Banda and Varanasi jails, respectively. But it’s clear their writ runs even from inside the jail. Ansari had entered politics long ago, winning as an Independent in 1990s, and is now BSP MLA from Mau. Singh won the MLC seat from Varanasi in 2015 by a record margin.
The gang war between Ansari and Singh left a trail of blood in Varanasi and adjoining cities like Jaunpur, Mirzapur, Ghazipur, Ballia and Azamgarh. On stake were economic resources of the region — coal, railway and mining contracts and the hegemony over Varanasi silk industry, which does a business of `10,000 crore annually.The two gangs had sophisticated weapons, dedicated members, bullet-proof vehicles and political patronage. Their empire extended from Lucknow to Ballia and adjoining districts of Bihar. Ansari was first patronised by Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and then by BSP chief Mayawati. Singh, on the other hand, is said to have links with the BJP. His elder brother Chulbul Singh was a BJP MLC.
While Ansari-Singh rivalry kept the Varanasi region alive with the sound of blazing guns in the ’90s and 2000s, Gorakhpur earned the sobriquet of ‘Slice of Sicily’ for being the battleground of Harish Shankar Tiwari and Virendra Pratap Shahi in late ’70s and ’80s. As Gorakhpur was the headquarters of North-Eastern railway, their rivalry was mainly over railway contracts. It was also a caste war that started from the student politics of Gorakhpur University. Tiwari’s ‘Hata’ and Shahi’s ‘Shakti Sadan’ were the two power centres in the gang war that claimed more than 50 lives. With the passage of time, however, both made their way into the Assembly.
Their rivalry continued, but at a lower decibel for over a decade till Shahi was killed in cold blood by Shri Prakash Shukla in 1997. Shukla was the new warrior of the ‘Brahmin gang’ who left a trail of killings before being shot dead by UP police’s Special Task Force in 1998. After Shukla’s killing, Gorakhpur is having an extended run of quiet. But the Varanasi region is always apprehensive of the sound of blazing guns. Bajrangi’s murder has amplified these fears.
Area of Operation: Eastern UP, Bihar, Delhi, Mumbai
Status: Murdered in Baghpat jail on July 9, 2018
Crimes: Known as Mukhtar Ansari’s sharpshooter, he killed about 40 people in his 20 years. He was accused in 2005 murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai. His involvement in extortion, contract killing, land deals and coal, liquor and government work contracts were well known. In an encounter bid, UP police had attacked him in 1998 and he had sustained a dozen bullets. He contested Assembly elections in 2012 from Apna Dal but lost. He was arrested in Mumbai in January 2009.