Gangster's aide held, UP cops booked for 'facilitating' talks with jailed boss

The arrest of a member of Anil Dujana gang, wanted for a car robbery here, has blown the lid off involvement of two policemen facilitating the jailed gangster's communication with outside world, officials here said Friday.

Accused Ankit Chaudhary, who was handling Dujana's illegal operations and mediating deals for him, was arrested late Thursday night and sent to jail, the police said.

The two police constables, who were posted in Maharajganj jail where Dujana is imprisoned, are accused of lending their mobile phones to him using which he would contact Chaudhary on WhatsApp, a senior official said.

Chaudhary, 24, was wanted in February 3 robbery of a Renault Duster, which was used in a killing on February 5 by three of his associates in Greater Noida, the police said.

The other three accused who had killed a "wrong man" in a case of mistaken identity have already been arrested and jailed, while Chaudhary, who was involved in the car robbery, was absconding, a senior official said.

"Chaudhary, a native of UP's Etawah district, was held on Thursday around 11.30 pm near Pari Chowk in Greater Noida," Superintendent of Police (Rural) Vineet Jaiswal told reporters.

Chaudhary, who has been charged with robbery, related offences, and under the Arms Act, was produced in a court on Friday which remanded him in judicial custody, he said.

A mobile phone was recovered from him during the arrest and when it was searched for details, revealing details about his contact with his jailed boss emerged, shedding light on the involvement of the two police constables too, he said.

Constable Shyam, who at present is deployed in Maharajganj jail, and constable Arvind, who was previously in Maharajganj but now serving in Ballia jail, the officer said.

"They would provide their mobile phones for communication between Dujana and Chaudhary and would often carry confidential chats and instructions about recovering or giving Rs 10 or 20 lakh from/to some people," the SP said.

"The seized mobile phone had pictures of handwritten notes from Dujana and voice clips, while one message from Chaudhary was about Rs 10,000 being transferred into the account of a constable," he added.

He said details from Chaudhary's mobile also revealed that he was in touch with other criminals such as Maya Jaat and Balram Thakur who were currently imprisoned in Luksar Jail here.

A case has been registered at the Kasna police station against the two constables under Indian Penal Code sections 35 (act done with a criminal knowledge or intention), 37 (co-operation by doing one of several acts constituting an offence), 119 (public servant concealing design to commit offence which it is his duty to prevent), 166 (public servant disobeying law), the police said.

They have also been charged under the Section 42 of the Prison Act (penalty for introduction or removal of prohibited articles into or from prison and communication with prisoners) and Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an officialact), they added.

Further probe with regard to the police constables was underway, the police said.