Mirzapur season 2 recently released on Prime Video. A tale of revenge, gang wars and cold-blooded murders, the series revolves around the fight to become the king of Mirzapur, between Guddu Pandit and Munna Bhaiya.
You’ll be surprised to know that Uttar Pradesh once had a real gangster, Munna Bajrangi. His name was feared in Mirzapur, Jaunpur and Varanasi regions of UP.
His original name was apparently Prem Prakash Singh and he got involved in crime at an early age. He was just 17 when the first case of murder and possession of illegal arms was registered against him.
After some independent killings, Munna Bajrangi joined Gajraj Singh’s gang in Jaunpur. (Heard of this place recently, in Mirzapur 2, right?)
He went on to join Mukhtar Ansari and gang in the 1990s, and became his close associate. Ansari’s gang had influence all over eastern Uttar Pradesh (Purvanchal) and was operated from the Mau region.
Munna Bajrangi was with Ansari when he murdered BJP leader Krishnanand Rai as a part of some gang rivalry. Bajrangi and his gang members killed Rai by firing 400 bullets from six AK-47 rifles in broad daylight.
The gang war and firing that took place was apparently the largest ‘display of firepower’ in a mafia battle in UP.
As per some sources, after this murder, Munna Bajrangi shifted to Mumbai with his family. A most-wanted criminal in over 40 murders and extortion cases, Bajrangi carried a cash reward of ₹7,00,000 on his arrest. He was finally nabbed in Mumbai in 2009 by the Delhi Police in coordination with the Mumbai Police.
While lodged in jail, he even had an unsuccessful stint in politics when he contested the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls from Mariyahu in Jaunpur as an Apna Dal candidate.
His nexus with criminal gangs and politicians prompted the authorities to shift him from one jail to another.
In July 2018, he was shot dead by Sunil Rathi, another prison inmate and a member of a rival gang at Baghpat jail. Just a day before his murder, Munna was shifted to Baghpat jail for a court appearance in an extortion case.
There were allegations that this was a planned murder and the case is currently being investigated by CBI.
While the makers of the Mirzapur series never said that it is based on Munna Bajrangi, his life, including his name closely resembles the elements of the show.