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The Central Bureau of Investigation today informed the Delhi High Court that it has registered an FIR in the Ankit Gujjar custodial death case.

The single judge bench of Justice Mukta Gupta had earlier on Sep 8 transferred the case to the CBI on a petition by Gujjar's family seeking the transfer of the probe to the Central Agency where it was alleged that the authorities are trying to “manipulate the investigation” to protect the accused. It had further been contended that the conduct of authorities had been in favour of offenders and against the victims.

The court today directed the DG Prisons to ensure the safety of the three petitioners who are presently in custody and those who will surrender and directed they be kept inside an area where the CCTV is fully functional “so that every ingress and outguess of the cell of petitioners is properly monitored.”

Court had also directed the DG prisons to file a status report on the MLC’s (medico-legal case) relating to two petitioners who were injured.

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 had been alleged that the 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.

Case Title: Gurpreet Singh alias Badal alias Akash vs State