Slain gangster Munna Bajrangi cremated amid tight security

Notorious gangster, contract killer and politician Prem Prakash Singh alias Munna Bajrangi, who was shot dead in mysterious circumstances in the Baghpat jail on Monday, was cremated at the Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi on Tuesday.

His 14-year-old son Sameer Singh lit the funeral pyre as hundreds of supporters of the mafia don raised slogans hailing him. The funeral procession started amid tight security from his village Sureri in Jaunpur district adjoining Varanasi. Companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and police were deployed to ensure that no untoward incident took place during the funeral procession.

The 51-year-old Bajrangi was shot 10 times in the head and chest from close range with a sophisticated handgun and his body was dumped in a gutter inside the jail on Monday morning, hours before he was to be produced in a court. The killer weapon disappeared from the site. The killer or killers remain unknown. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered the suspension of four jail officials and declared that the guilty would be punished. Bajrangi’s body, after post-mortem, was handed over to his wife Seema Singh and other family members on Monday night.

Meanwhile, Seema Singh has named legislator Sushil Singh and another gangster, Dhananjay Singh, in the FIR lodged by her. Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said a probe had been ordered into the killing. Officials of the state government remained mum on the disappearance of the weapon used in the killing from inside the jail. The family members alleged the complicity of the prison authorities at the behest of officials of the state government in the murder. Bajrangi was known to have introduced the use of Kalashnikovs (AK 47 rifles) during mafia wars in Uttar Pradesh. Since 2009, he was in jail for the gangland murder of MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005 and another BJP leader Ramchandra Singh. For many years, he supported the Samajwadi Party headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, but the gang switched to Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party in mid-2000s. He fought elections while imprisoned in Tihar jail under Apna Dal and Peace Party of India in 2012 as trial proceedings were going on