Probe to focus on discrepancies in viral pictures of Bajrangi’s body from Baghpat prison

Lucknow: With doubts surfacing over photographs of Munna Bajrangi’s body, clicked soon after he was murdered on Monday morning inside Baghpat prison, UP government on Tuesday said that all the aspects would be examined.
Bajrangi was shot in the skull several times inside the jail. Another gangster lodged in the same prison Sunil Rathi owned up to the crime and said an argument broke out between the two after Bajrangi called him ‘too chubby’.
The photographs clicked at the scene of crime showed Bajrangi was in white vest and white shorts donning flip flops.“Some variation can be seen in different photographs that have been circulated. But the photographs have been shot from different angles. Plus one of these photographs is a copy of an original one and hence some aberrations could occur,” said a police officer.
Senior officials were also interested in finding out how photographs went viral so rapidly though no mobile cameras are allowed in jail. As a result, additional director general of prisons department, Chandra Prakash, visited Baghpat to find out if apart from jail staffers, forensic field unit members and policemen, other people were also allowed to click photographs of Bajrangi.
However, to put doubts to rest, principal secretary of home department, Arvind Kumar said that besides judicial and magisterial inquiries, an FIR has also been lodged. “Opinion of forensic experts dealing with subject would be taken on the matter,” said Kumar.
Similarly, the audio clipping of Bajrangi’s lawyer with Jhansi jail staffers and doctors would be also checked. It is not known at this stage whether the two actually spoke or not and their call records would be examined.
Meanwhile, Bajrangi’s advocate Vikas Srivastava said that Bajrangi should not have been made to stay in Baghpat. “We had gone to Tis Hazari court in Delhi for personal appearance in February this year. But we came back to Jhansi soon after the proceedings got over instead of stopping somewhere. We had sensed the intentions of the present government and hence took necessary precautions,” said Srivastava whose appeal to not insist on Bajrangi’s personal appearance was rejected by Baghpat chief judicial magistrate on July 7.
As a warrant against Bajrangi had been issued under CrPC section 167(2) he was asked to come in person when police moved application for first remand for his custody in order to question him in connection with an extortion case lodged at Baghpat Kotwali on September 25, 2017.