Deaths of three prisoners in shootout at Chitrakoot jail expose lawlessness in Uttar Pradesh prisons

The open murder of two prisoners by another inmate inside the Chitrakoot jail in Uttar Pradesh has posed serious questions on the security in state's prisons and the lawlessness that has gripped its jails right under the nose of the administration.

In a simple version of what transpired leading to the incident, it was said that an inmate fatally shot two others and the shooter was later gunned down by the police. The truth is that this simplified narration has only raised more questions than answers.

Was it a gang war or a fake encounter to eliminate criminals in an extrajudicial manner? How could a pistol be taken inside the jail premises when the prison manual strictly prohibits even the possession of a needle? Shockingly enough, the CCTV cameras in the area where the incident took place have not been working for two months thus ending the possibility of procuring any credible video evidence.

Last Friday (14 May), a prisoner named Anshu Dixit fired a pistol at Meeruddin alias Meraj Ali and Mukim alias 'Kala', a hardened criminal from western Uttar Pradesh killing them both on the spot. Dixit was himself killed in retaliatory action by the police. While jailor Mahendra Pal and jail superintendent Sriprakash Tripathi have been suspended as per the direction of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, these are only routine short-term measures and do little to cleanse a system thoroughly.

Anshu was transferred from Sultanpur jail to Chitrakoot jail on 8 December 2019 while on 20 March 2021, Mukhtar Ansari's special hand Meraj was sent to Chitrakoot jail from Varanasi. On 7 May 2021, Mukim, accused in more than 60 cases, was sent from Saharanpur jail to Chitrakoot jail. The trio died on 14 May.

According to sources, 22 out of 30 CCTVs in the high-security cell in which Anshu was kept were not working for the last two months. A letter was written to the executive body to fix the CCTVs as maintenance is the responsibility of the agency that installed the cameras. In such a situation, the question arises that even after the complaint, why the cameras were not fixed? Why the jail administration commit such grave negligence? Why no action was taken against the agency concerned?

Since the jail officials were suspended in this matter, the Chitrakoot superintendent of police Ankit Mittal proved hardly helpful in providing more information. "Ask the jail administration. My health is not good," Mittal responded bluntly when more information was sought on the alleged gang war, access to arms by inmates and the sloppy maintenance of security gadgets.

In the FIRs, it has been revealed that at the time of the shootout none of the senior Chitrakoot jail officials were present. Both the jail superintendent and the jailer were not in jail at the time of the incident. The two deputy jailers were already on leave as they were positive. The jail superintendent was present at his official residence. The first FIR was lodged against the gang war accused by the jail superintendent while the second FIR was lodged regarding Anshu's encounter.

Anshu's father Jagdish Dixit claims that his son was killed in a fake encounter.

"What happened in the jail is completely wrong. The day before his death, Anshu spoke to me on the phone, he was absolutely fine then. He asked me to bring over his stuff. The police are lying by saying that he was asked to surrender. This is a fabrication. I have another son, who is a medical representative by profession and is absconding now. Big names have a hand in what happened yesterday. I cannot take his name or else it will be difficult for me to live. We cannot fight them. Whatever it is, all is political malice," Jagdish said.

Anshul Dixit in Rae Bareli jail, 2018. He was subsequently moved to Sultanpur Jail, from where UP Police shifted him to Chitrakoot Jail, on 8 December 2019. Video procured by Mohammad Sartaj Alam

Talking more about his son Anshu, Jagdish said, "My son was studying in Class 6 from Saraswati Shishu Mandir. He was a bright student. Once I bought him a dozen pencils and asked him not to use them all at once. But his classmates used to steal it. In anger, he brought pencils from several other students from his class the next day. I saw what he did was wrong. Then I asked him to immediately return the pencils and he did so. I am saying that I raised him well. He was not a criminal but the government and administration made him one. He was killed today, I know that I will not get justice.

"At the age of 14, he was badly injured by the boys of MLC Bharat Tripathi of Sitapur. After that, he did not come back from home. He grew up in the world of crime and never came under our control. Neither our son formed a gang nor did he have any relation with Mukhtar Ansari."

Meanwhile, Mursalin, the uncle of the deceased Mukim, said, "This incident happened on the day of Eid. All this has happened with planning because is it easy to get a pistol inside the jail? Who else carries a pistol apart from the police? I believe he was a criminal, looting cases were registered in his name, but there was no grudge with Anshu Dixit. God only knows who hatched this plan."

But, Mukim's mother Meena only said that the police criminalized her son. While Abdul Kalam, brother of Merajuddin, the third criminal killed in the Chitrakoot jail shootout case, expressed doubt on the police, "I know who is behind this conspiracy. I know who the conspirator is, but I will tell the name later. My brother has not met Mukhtar Ansari since 2004, my house was broken by forcibly associating my brother's name to that with Mukhtar. No one has a criminal record in my house. I retired from the railways."

The Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a three-member inquiry committee comprising Chitrakoot commissioner DK Singh, IG Satyanarayana and DIG Sanjeev Tripathi to investigate the incident.

Former IPS officer Amitabh Thakur and human rights activist Nutan Thakur have sought an inquiry by the National Human Rights Commission in the alleged gang war and encounter in Chitrakoot jail.

In their complaint, they said that there are at least 10 reasons which make the administration's story completely unbelievable. They include the sudden availability of weapon in jail to a person who had anticipated his murder in jail, the presence of only five selected witnesses in the case, Anshu's categorical allegation on IG STF Amitabh Yash and jail administration of conspiring to kill him.

In a way, he had prophesized his own death, the second such suspicious death in an Uttar Pradesh jail after Munna Bajrangi's similar allegations on Amitabh Yash and the non-functioning of CCTV in Chitrakoot jail.