PATNA: A prisoner, identifed as Manish Kumar (30) alias Telia, was killed in Bihar's Hajipur jail on Friday afternoon and some four other prisoners injured in clash between two groups of prisoners.
The victim, a resident of Vaishali district, was lodged arrested in 2018 in connection with two major gold loot crimes, which were committed in Jaipur in 2017. He was also accused in many cases of gold loots commited in Kolkata and other parts of Bihar and was associated with an interstate gang of gold robbers.
Earlier, an attempt on his life was made on him in 2019 when he was being taken to court but had a narrow escape.
As soon as the news of murder inside the jail reached the police headquarters, senior officials including IG (Prisons) Mithlesh Mishra and Vaishali DM Udita Singh along with heavy reinforcements of police reached the jail and started an intensive raid.
Singh told the media that victim was shot dead and the injured are being hospitalised. As per latest developments, raid was ongoing in the jail and two prisoners were taken under custody. The DM said that the pistol used in the crime was also seized and one prisoner named Raja Babu was arrested on charge of killing another prisoner due to an old enmity.
She also said that investigation has started as how the firearm went inside the jail. "Whosoever would be found lax in duty in the jail or involved in crime further would be punished strongly as per the rules of jail manual," she said.
However the murder has badly exposed the security arrangements of the prison in which a dozen of gold robbers are lodged. Though Mishra couldn't speak to the media, official sources said that he had sought a report on it from jail administration.