[Ankit Gujjar] Death due to multiple blunt injuries from excessive beating: CBI to Delhi High Court

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a status report before the Delhi High Court, detailing the responses of witnesses, police control room calls and the medical opinion of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the case of custodial death of gangster Ankit Gujjar [Geeta and Ors. v State of NCT of Delhi]..As per the report of CBI, the AIIMS has opined that Gujjar died as a result of hemorrhage caused due to multiple blunt injuries sustained by him."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 said..Pertinently, the report further claimed that the above mentioned injuries cannot be sustained by minimum coercion."Multiple injuries found on the body of the deceased are unlikely to be caused by minimum coercion (but) are due to excessive beating," the AIIMS opinion said. .The reply came after single-judge Justice Mukta Gupta, had directed the Superintendent of Police, CBI to carry out an investigation and file 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.The directions by the Court came on a plea by the mother, sister and brother of deceased Gujjar..The report also gave statements by various inmates of Tihar jail who corroborated that Gujjar was assaulted. "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, Zakir who had last seen Gujjar alive. Another witness, Veeru stated that he saw fisticuffs between Gujjar, Deputy Superintendent and three under-trial prisoners.Apart from the above, 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 Court was further informed that CBI is still pursuing investigation with respect to the two letters that were sent to Executive Engineer, OPED,PWD by Bharat Electronics limited.One letter dated August 2, 2021 had the subject line "Permission to shutdown CCTV System in Central Jail-3 on 3 August, 2021".Another dated August 3, 2021 was with respect to "Major technical fault in Central Jail-3"..Gujjar was arrested in 2015. Among other cases, he was also accused of having murdered BJP leader, Vijay Pandit in 2014. As per an Indian Express report, following a preliminary investigation into his death, it was revealed that Gujjar was severely beaten up by four persons in jail.The High Court had on September 8 transferred the probe into the death of Gujjar to CBI.