Anant Singh file photo.
Credit: PTI Photo
Patna: The Bihar police arrested former JD (U) MLA and party nominee from Mokama, Anant Singh, in the wee hours of Sunday in connection with the murder of Jan Suraaj supporter Dularchand Yadav.
The Senior SP (SSP) of Patna, Kartikey Sharma, under whose jurisdiction comes Mokama, led the 150-member police team when the top cop reached the don-turned-politician Anant Singh’s house at Barh to arrest him in the midnight.
In the wee hours of Sunday, Anant was brought to Patna and lodged in the SSP’s office which has a separate lock-up called Rangdari cell (extortion cell).
“During investigation, it was found Anant was present at the incident site where Dularchand Yadav was killed. He has been arrested while two of his absconding relatives, named in the FIR, will be apprehended soon,” said the SSP.
The arrest comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Bihar addressing rallies and holding roadshow in Patna, while Union Home Minister Amit Shah too is camping in the State Capital, over-seeing the poll management. Both the BJP leaders have been singing paeans to Nitish for establishing the rule of law in Bihar.
However, Anant Singh, also called ‘Chote Sarkar’ (mini government), who is a terror in Mokama (as he faces 28 cases of murder, kidnapping and extortion), showing utter disregard to the rule of law, reportedly gunned down Dularchand Yadav, supporter of Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj candidate Piyush Priyadarshi, on October 30.
The first political killing of this election, Dularchand’s murder shook Bihar and rattled the Election Commission which suspended the SHO (Mokama), SDO and the SDPO, and transferred the Rural SP of Patna.
Having received reports that Anant’s men were moving in cavalcade of 40 SUVs with his supporters displaying sophisticated arms openly in and around Mokama, the EC has asked the Patna DM and the SSP to ensure no rule of law was violated and heavy deployment of force was done in the trouble-torn area.
Soon after his arrest, a social media post by Anant Singh has gone viral wherein he has asked the voters of Mokama to ensure justice for him on the day of polling. Voting in Mokama is slated for November 6.
Anant is pitted against another Bahubali, Surajbhan Singh’s wife Veena Devi of the RJD, while Piyush is representing the Jan Suraaj.
The rivalry between Anant and Surajbhan goes back to the year 2000 when Surajbhan himself contested the Assembly poll and defeated Anant’s elder brother Dilip Singh. Anant, however, won the 2005 election and since then has been winning from here as Nitish Kumar’s JD (U) nominee or as an Independent. Surajbhan’s wife Veena Devi, pitted against Anant, was earlier a Lok Sabha MP from adjoining Munger.