2 senior prison officials suspended over terror accused’s murder in Faridabad jail

Days after a terror accused named Abdul Rehman was murdered by gangster Arun Chaudhary inside the Neemka Jail in Faridabad following a brawl, the Haryana government has suspended the jail superintendent and the DSP in-charge of prison security, officials said on Thursday. According to an official order issued on Wednesday, jail superintendent Harendra Kumar and DSP Sachin Kaushik have been suspended over the killing of Rehman (20), who was lodged in the district jail for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to carry out an explosion in Ayodhya. Narnaul Jail superintendent Sanjay Bangar has been given additional charge of Neemka Jail. He took charge on Thursday. When contacted, DG Prison Alok Mittal confirmed the suspension of the two senior prison officials. A resident of Milkipur in Uttar Pradesh, Rehman was killed with a sharp stone early Monday, allegedly by Arun Chaudhary alias Abu Jat, a resident of Jammu lodged in the same barrack, after an argument over the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Rehman, who was arrested by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in March 2025, had links with Abu Sufyan, a notorious member of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). He allegedly plotted to blow up the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Chaudhary, who was involved in the Akshay Sharma murder case in Jammu, was transferred from the Kathua Jail to Neemka Jail two years ago, police said. A senior jail official said that Rehman's murder revealed security lapses in the prison, which led to the suspension of a warder and a head warder two days ago. Now, action has been taken against the jail superintendent and the DSP for the alleged lapses, the official said. Prison sources said that Chaudhary and Rehman had been arguing over the Ram Mandir for around 10 days leading to the murder, after the former came to know about the latter's alleged intention to blow up the temple in Ayodhya. Between 2 am and 3 am on Monday, Chaudhary gagged Rehman and hit him several times on the back of his head with a sharp stone, police said. When fellow inmate Shoaib Riaz raised an alarm, prison officials reached the spot and took Rehman to the jail hospital, where he was declared dead.