The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed the Ankit Gujjar custodial death case status report before the Delhi High Court. The status report includes responses of witnesses, police control room calls, and the medical opinion of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
“The death of the deceased was caused by hemorrhage due to the cumulative effect of multiple blunt force injuries sustained to the body. Injuries present on the body of the deceased Ankit Gujjar were blunt force injuries which included abrasion, contusions, lacerations, and patchy subarachnoid hemorrhage in the brain,” the report stated.
“Multiple injuries found on the body of the deceased are unlikely to be caused by minimum coercion (but) are due to excessive beating,” opined AIIMS.
The matter has been heard by single judge bench of Justice Mukta Gupta. The High Court bench has directed the Superintendent of Police and CBI to investigate the matter and submit a status report.
“It is evident that the allegations made by the petitioners are correct, it is a very serious offence which requires in depth investigation to unearth the manner in which alleged extortion is carried out in the prison,” the court had said.
“Walls of prison, howsoever high they may be, the foundation of a prison is laid on the Rule of Law ensuring the rights to its inmates enshrined in the Constitution of India. It is the violation of these Constitutional rights of Ankit Gujjar, who lost his life to custodial violence in Tihar Jail, which has compelled the petitioners Geeta, Shivani and Ankul, the mother, sister and brother of deceased Ankit Gujjar to file the present writ petition,” the bench had noted in the September hearing.
The report has also mentioned the statements given by jail inmates.
“Saw Ankit Gujjar groaning with pain when he was shifted to Cell no. 9, ward 1. Ankit continued to groan till late at night,” said an inmate.
Another one stated that he saw fisticuffs between Gujjar, Deputy Superintendent and three under-trial prisoners
The reports also talked about 5 polycarbonate Lathis, used to allegedly assault Gujjar, were taken into possession by CBI and forensic experts have revealed that Lathis have blood traces on them.
The investigation agency informed the court that it is still looking into the two letters which were sent to Executive Engineer, OPED, PWD by Bharat Electronics Limited.
One of the two letters dated August 2, 2021, carried a subject line on it – “Permission to shutdown CCTV System in Central Jail-3 on 3 August 2021“.
The second letter dated August 3, 2021, had the subject line “Major technical fault in Central Jail-3“.
Ankit Gujjar was facing trial in 13 cases registered at various police stations of Haryana, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. Ankita was also accused of murdering BJP leader, Vijay Pandit in 2014. He was arrested in 2015.
Ankit Gujjar, 29 was found dead inside the Tihar jail on August 4 this year. The court had noted that the post-mortem report “belies the version” of the jail officials that a scuffle took place in which both Deputy Superintendent and Gujjar received injuries.
“It is evident that deceased was brutally beaten and left unattended… Not only did Narender Meena (DS) and others assaulted the deceased mercilessly, the jail doctor on duty also failed to perform his duty,” the court had further stated.
