Munna Bajrangi

Munna Bajrangi

Munna Bajrangi a.k.a. Prem Prakash Singh is a dreaded[1] contract killer, gang leader and politician from Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. Since 2009, he is in jail for the gangland murder of MLA Krishnanand Rai in 2005.

For many years, he was supported the Samajwadi Party headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, but the gang switched to Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party in mid-2000s. He has recently fought elections under Apna Dal and Peace Party of India in 2012.

Criminal career

In an atmosphere where the moves of criminals becoming politicians was pioneered by gangsters like Hari Shankar Tiwari, Raja Bhaiyya, D P Yadav and others, Bajrangi started his criminal career as a member of criminal-politician Mukhtar Ansari's gang.[2] In the early 1990s, under the governance of Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, criminals were flourishing in UP. In 1996, Mukhtar was elected from Mau, and the gang, with its arsenal of AK-47 and other weapons, became a household name in the districts of Mau, Ghazipur, Varanasi and Jaunpur. The gangs made a living by garnering government contracts with political help.

They soon came into conflict with Brijesh Singh, another established ganglord who worked together with gangster turned politician Krishnanand Rai of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In 2001, Brijesh Singh's gang ambushed the Mukhtar Ansari gang on the Mau-Lucknow highway, Three people died from each mafia gang.

In the 2002 elections, Mukhtar's brother Afzal Ansari, who had won from Mohammadabad in five earlier elections, was defeated by Krishnanand Rai, a rival ganglord supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party.[3]

On the afternoon of November 2005, Rai was travelling with six aides when they were attacked by seven gangsters in a Tata Sumo. Bajrangi along with associates Firdaus, were Ata-ur-Rahman alias Babu, and Aijazul Haque were identified by some survivors.[4] CBI later identified Vishwas Nepali, Sanjeev Maheshwari, Rakesh Pandey and Ramu Mallah as the other members of the attacking team.[5] Over 400 bullets were fired from six AK-47 rifles, killing Rai and all others travelling in two Qualises. 67 bullets were recovered from seven bodies. A police officer called it the largest "display of firepower" in an Uttar Pradesh mafia battle.[2] Since then, Bajrangi was on the Police's most wanted list.

In 2009, after announcing a cash reward of Rs.700,000, Bajrangi was arrested against from the posh Siddivinayak residential society in Mumbai's Malad area.[1] He had been living in the apartment under his real name, Prem Prakash Singh, along with his wife and three teenaged children since 2003.

In 2012, while imprisoned in Tihar jail with the trial proceeding ongoing,[6] Bajrangi fought in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative elections 2012 from Mariyahu as a joint candidate of the Apna Dal and the Peace Party. He came in third, polling 12% behind winner Shraddha Yadav of Samajwadi Party.

References

  1. 1 2 IANS (30 Oct 2009). "Gangster Munna Bajrangi confesses to killing 40 people". MSN news. Retrieved 10 mar 2012a. Check date values in: |access-date= (help) 'When we asked him about how many people he had killed so far, he vaguely said 40 to 50 people,' a senior police officer said.
  2. 1 2 Alka Pande (Dec 19, 2005). "A Slice Of Sicily : Guns for hire in dusty Poorvanchal". Outlook (magazine). Retrieved Mar 12, 2012.
  3. ↑ Sanjay Singh (May 3, 2007). "In Ansari’s Mohammadabad, a fight for justice". Indian Express. Retrieved Mar 10, 2012.
  4. ↑ http://elegalix.allahabadhighcourt.in/elegalix/WebShowJudgment.do
  5. ↑ Outlook
  6. ↑ PTI (Mar 7, 2012). "Candidates with criminal records bite the dust in UP polls". Daily News and Analysis. Retrieved Mar 10, 2012.
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