Anant Singh found guilty in AK-47 recovery case

PATNA: A special court in Patna on Tuesday pronounced RJD legislator Anant Singh guilty in a case of recovery of an AK-47 assault rifle and two hand grenades from his house at his native village Nandwan in rural Patna on August 16, 2019.

“The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on June 21,” Singh’s counsel Sunil Kumar said, adding that they will move high court after punishment is awarded.

Singh, who represents Mokama constituency in Bihar assembly, was present in the court when the verdict was announced. He has been lodged in Beur Central Jail in Patna since the recovery of arms from his house.

The MLA was once close to chief minister Nitish Kumar, but fell out with him ahead of the 2015 assembly elections, which led to his exit from the JD(U). He contested the 2015 elections as an Independent and retained Mokama seat, which he has been winning since 2005. Later, he joined RJD.

After the arms were seized from his house, Singh went on the run. Later, he released a video in which he had claimed that political forces were “conspiring” against him in the case and he would be directly surrendering at the court instead of doing so before the police.

A few days later, the MLA surrendered before Saket court in New Delhi.

Singh, who enjoys a strong man image, has 37 cases lodged against him in Patna district since 1976, including 10 murder cases, according to police.

In 2004, eight of his associates and a policeman were killed in a shoot-out at Barh.

In the arms recovery case, the state government has appointed Shyameshwar Dayal as the special public prosecutor. Dayal was also a prosecutor in murder cases against former MPs Mohammad Shahbuddin and Anand Mohan Singh, besides the case of a minor’s rape in which RJD MLA from Nawada, Rajballah Yadav, was accused. All these cases resulted in the conviction of the accused.