Ankit Gujjar, dubbed one of the most wanted criminals in Uttar Pradesh with multiple counts of homicide and robbery, was found dead in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on Wednesday morning, confirmed prison officials. Although the exact circumstances surrounding his death is not yet clear, news agencies reported that Ankit’s body was found at Jail Number 3 in Tihar this morning.
Tihar Jail officials said that an investigation has been launched to probe his death and ascertain the exact cause behind the incident.
Ankit Gujjar was said to have been involved in as many as eight murder cases. Both the Uttar Pradesh Police and the Delhi Police had issued rewards on him. While the UP Police had announced a reward of ₹1 lakh, the Delhi Police declared ₹25,000 as a reward for apprehending Ankit Gujjar.
Ankit was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police back in 2015, but he had come out on bail in 2019. He then shifted his operations to Delhi. The gangster, a resident of Baghpat in western Uttar Pradesh, reportedly joined hands with a Delhi-based gangster, Rohit Chaudhary, to jointly form the Chaudhary-Gujjar gang. They were keen on expanding their network in South Delhi, reports say.
Delhi Police in September last year arrested Ankit Gujjar, who by the time had become one of UP’s most wanted criminals. Several other gangsters in the South Delhi area had also joined the Chaudhary-Gujjar gang and it was reported that the members of the gang were living together at Neemrana in Rajasthan along with their leaders, Rohit Chaudhary and Ankit Gujjar.
Ankit’s death is significant because only last month the Delhi high court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe a case of an inmate named Shrikant Rama Swami’s murder inside the prison on May 14.
Swami, an under-trial prisoner, was found dead on May 14, 2002, in Barrack No. 4 of Ward No. 2 at Tihar’s Jail Number 2.