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The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice in a plea filed by family members of 29-year-old gangster Ankit Gujjar, who was allegedly murdered inside Tihar Jail in the capital, seeking transfer of investigation from Delhi Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Hearing the plea filed by Gujjar's mother, brother and sister, single judge bench of Justice Mukta Gupta issued notice to the Centre, Delhi Police and Tihar Jail Authrities.

The Court further directed the Tihar Jail Authorities and the Delhi Police to file a status report. The Director General (Prisons) has also been directed to preserve all the CCTV footages which have a bearing on the incident, i.e. prior to the incident, at the time of incident and thereafter.

The petition filed through Advocates Mehmood Pracha and Shariq Nisar has alleged that the authorities are trying to “manipulate the investigation” to protect the accused. It has further been contented that the conduct of authorities has been in favour of offenders and against the victims.

Gangster Ankit Gujjar, who was accused of killing BJP leader Vijay Pandit outside his Dadri home in 2014, was found dead inside the Tihar jail complex on Aug 4, 2021. It has been alleged that investigation revealed that the 29-year-old was beaten to death.

Ankit was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police back in 2015, but was subsequently released on bail in 2019. He was said to have been involved in as many as 8 murder cases. Both the Uttar Pradesh Police and the Delhi Police had issued rewards of ₹ 1 lakh and  ₹ 25,000 respectively for apprehending Ankit Gujjar.

The matter has been listed for next hearing on Sep 2,  2021.

Case Title: Geeta and Ors vs State and Ors

Edited by Shreya Agarwal