JD(U)’s Anant Singh, 2 aides in 14-day judicial custody over Jan Suraaj supporter’s murder

Patna, Nov 2: A Patna court on Sunday remanded JD(U) candidate from Mokama seat, Anant Singh, and his two associates to 14-day judicial custody in connection with the murder of Jan Suraaj Party supporter Dular Chand Yadav.
Singh, a former Bihar MLA, and his two aides, Manikant Thakur and Ranjeet Ram, who were earlier arrested in connection with Yadav’s murder, were produced before the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) in Patna.
“The court sent Singh and two others to judicial custody for two weeks,” his lawyer Naveen Kumar told reporters.
From the court, they were taken to Patna’s Beur Jail.
Singh had been under the scanner since the death of Yadav, who had recently clashed with the former MLA’s supporters, and the JD(U) candidate was picked up from his house in Barh, about 200 km from the state capital Patna.
Police later arrested Singh and two other persons in connection with the killing of Yadav in the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday.
Yadav died while he was campaigning for Jan Suraaj Party’s candidate Piyush Priyadarshi in Mokama area in Patna district on Thursday.
Yadav’s post-mortem examination report revealed that he died of cardiorespiratory failure due to shock caused by injury to the heart and lungs by a hard and blunt substance.
The post-mortem examination report and preliminary investigation suggested it was a case of murder, a senior police officer said.
Investigations also revealed that all three were present at the time of the incident, he said.
A total of four FIRs, one pertaining to the violation of the model code of conduct, have been registered by the police to investigate the incident, he said, adding that Singh was named in one of the FIRs.
Singh, a local strongman, has been named as an accused along with four others in one of the FIRs, registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by the grandson of Yadav, a gangster-turned-politician who was named in a number of criminal cases.
Singh, a multiple-term former MLA, whose wife Neelam Devi currently represents the Mokama seat, has also been booked for model code of conduct violation, as instances of his movement in large cavalcades have come to the fore. (PTI)