New Delhi: On May 14, 2021, while the entire country celebrated Eid-ul-fitr and Parshuram Jayanti, the morning reverie inside a high-security prison in Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot was broken by loud shots of gunfire.
Three inmates lost their lives in the incident: Mukim alias Kala, an alleged gangster from western Uttar Pradesh who was blamed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its unfounded allegations of Hindu exodus in Kairana; Meraj Ahmad, an associate of the controversial former legislator Mukhtar Ansari, who recently passed away; and Anshu Dikshit, a prisoner who allegedly shot the first two dead before being killed himself.
According to the official version, Dikshit, allegedly shot dead Mukim and Ahmad before being shot dead himself by police who claimed he had held five other inmates hostage and threatened to kill them. However, it all seemed amiss to families of those killed inside the jail. They questioned the police narrative and accused the state government and its officials of orchestrating the three killings to make it appear like a bloody rivalry between inmates.
More than three years later, a judicial probe commission constituted to investigate the incident recently submitted its report to the state government and supported the version put forward by the police. The commission headed by a retired Allahabad high court judge Shashi Kant has concluded that the “shortcomings, lapses and failures” of the jail officials, civil police and personnel of the Provincial Armed Constabulary stationed at the prison in carrying out their duty with effectiveness and dedication was a “major contributing” factor behind the incident.
The panel ruled out a larger conspiracy behind the incident. It said that there was “no credible evidence” of a conspiracy or collusion between jail officials, the administrative officials, the police and politicians. Without confirmation of any “concrete evidence,” the allegations made by the families were “baseless,” said the probe commission, whose report was tabled in the Uttar Pradesh assembly earlier this month. The commission concluded that it could not rule out the possibility of a conspiracy between Diskhit and some jail staff and others. However, the 525-page probe report was not clear on what motivated Diskhit to allegedly shoot dead the other two inmates, Mukim and Ahmad. That still remains a mystery.
Mukim’s name had sprung into national headlines after the BJP in 2016, then in Opposition in Uttar Pradesh, ran a campaign alleging that Hindus in Kairana were forced to leave their homes due to the intimidation of Muslim criminals, in particular Mukim, who allegedly enjoyed the patronage of the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP).
The BJP’s conspiracy theory of a Hindu exodus was debunked by the state government as well as by journalists but the party persisted with the narrative to push its political story of alleged Muslim appeasement under the SP government of Akhilesh Yadav. The BJP after coming to power in 2017 used state power against Mukim, his family and his associates, leading to arrests and killings and shootings in alleged police “encounters”.
On May 7, 2021, a week before he was gunned down, Mukim was shifted from the Saharanpur jail to the district jail in Chitrakoot due to alleged administrative reasons. Meraj Ahmad, an associate of Mukhtar Ansari, the politician who faced the full force of the Adityanath government and administration since 2017, was transferred to Chitrakoot jail on March 20, 2021 from Varanasi. Dikshit had been lodged in the Chitrakoot jail for much longer.
Since it was the second wave of COVID-19, after being brought to Chitrakoot jail, Mukim was kept in a makeshift barrack under quarantine. This was meant for 14 days but Mukim was killed before that. Later during the judicial probe, it was found that on the day of the incident, only seven-eight CCTVs in the prison were working, with none of the CCTVs in the high-security barracks functional. The non-functional cameras had been out of service allegedly for a long period. No CCTV cameras had been installed in the makeshift barrack where Mukim was kept, jail officials told the probe commission.
Due to COVID-19, there had been no mulakats (meetings) between inmates and their families for a year and it had been a month since prisoners were taken out for court hearings, questions arose on how Dikshit managed to get hold of a gun and a functional mobile phone.
On May 14, 2021, Dikshit, armed with a pistol and covering his face with a gamcha (traditional scarf), walked out of the high-security barrack, whose main gate was left open. He then proceeded towards the makeshift barracks, whose guard allegedly forgot to lock the enclosure as the staff there had just left to take three new prisoners for a medical checkup. After entering the makeshift barracks, Diskhit allegedly shot Mukim, who died on the spot. He came out of it allegedly talking to someone on the mobile phone. After this, he returned to the high-security barrack where he allegedly shot dead Meraj.
Mukim’s mother Meena, who had apprehended fears about an alleged state conspiracy to get her son murdered in a fake encounter, suspected foul play. Months before the incident, Meena had approached the Allahabad high court seeking protection for her jailed son Mukim when he had been detained in Saharanpur jail. Meena alleged that the police had been harassing Mukim by building pressure on her to withdraw a complaint filed by her against them for the alleged shooting dead of her younger son Wasim.
The Uttar Pradesh police Special Task Force had shot dead Wasim in September, 2017 in an alleged “encounter,” that was termed fake by his family.
On March 22, 2021 a division bench of the high court said that the response from the state government did not show any harassment of Mukim. However, the court directed the government to see that no harm was caused to Mukim. Meena alleged that her son was brought from Kurukshetra jail to Saharanpur jail and then to Chitrakoot jail as part of a conspiracy by jail officials, police and the administration in Saharanpur and Chitrakoot.
Mukim was moved to Chitrakoot jail even though COVID-19 second wave was at its peak, she said. On February 2, 2021, Mukim had himself submitted an application in the court of the Special Judge Gangsters Court, Saharanpur alleging that local officials working under political pressure were planning to eliminate him in an “encounter.” Meena had also alleged that before Mukim was shot, he had been brutally tortured in the prison. The probe commission, however, did not confirm this allegation.
Meraj Ahmad’s family too had alleged that police murdered him in the early hours of May 14, 2021 and later made it seem like a shootout. Nisha Dikshit, Dikshit’s mother, also suspected foul-play. She alleged that there was police involvement behind the incident. She said that her son Anshu Dikshit had no enmity or dispute with Mukim or Meraj whatsoever, and therefore, no strong motive to shoot them dead inside a prison.
The probe commission agreed with this notion but said a lack of motive was not good enough to prove that he didn’t commit the murders.
