A prisoner lodged in Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot jail on Friday shot dead two of his inmates and held five others hostage before being gunned down by the police, reported The Indian Express. However, it was not clear how the prisoner got the gun.

Chief Minister Adityanath directed a three-member team, comprising Chitrakoot Dham Commissioner DK Singh, Inspector General K Satya Narayan and Deputy Inspector General of Police (Jail) Sanjeev Tripathi, to conduct an inquiry and file a detailed report on the incident. The state government also suspended Chitrakoot jail Superintendent SP Tripathi and jailor Mahendra Pal.

The police said that gangster Anshu Dixit shot dead Mukeem Kala, a resident of western Uttar Pradesh, and Mirajudeen alias Miraj, an associate of jailed MLA Mukhtar Ansari. The motive is yet to be ascertained, the police said. Director General (Prisons) Anand Kumar has admitted to security lapses in the jail, reported the Hindustan Times.

Santosh Verma, the spokesperson of UP prison at Lucknow, said the incident took place after 10 am when prisoners came out of their barracks. Dixit then opened fire and killed the two prisoners and held five others hostage, threatening to kill them. Verma said that the jail officials sought help from the police to control the situation.

A jail official said that senior officials tried to convince Dixit to surrender. An hour later, Dixit let three hostages out, the official said.

“When police were trying to convince Dixit to surrender, he fired on them,” Chitrakoot SP Ankit Mittal said. “The police fired in retaliation, and Dixit suffered injuries leading to his death.” The police later seized the gun Dixit used.

Verma said that Dixit was transferred from Sultanpur jail to Chitrakoot jail in December 2019. He had several charges against him, including the murder of former Lucknow University Student Union General Secretary Vinod Tripathi in 2007.

Kala was shifted to Chitrakoot from Saharanpur jail in March, the prison spokesperson said. He has over 61 criminal cases registered against him, including for the murder of three police officers. Mirajudeen, a resident of Ghazipur, had 14 cases against on charges of murder, attempt to murder and forgery. He was transferred from Varanasi jail a week ago.

Social activists seek judicial inquiry

Meanwhile, social activists Amitabh Thakur and Dr Nutan Thakur wrote to Adityanath on Friday seeking a judicial inquiry into the incident on the basis of a purported video of Dixit, reported Amar Ujala.

Dixit had reportedly claimed in the video that the prison administration and Inspector General of Special Task Force Amitabh Yash were conspiring to kill him, the social activists said in the letter. Dixit had said that the administration might try to kill him by sounding the alarm and that Yash and the jail administration should be blamed if he dies, the letter said, citing the video.

The social activists said that Dixit’s statement in the video was quite similar to the incident that took place and demanded an independent inquiry led by a sitting High Court judge.