JD(U) Candidate Anant Singh Arrested for Murder During Bihar Assembly Election Campaign

Former Bihar MLA Anant Singh, fielded by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, was arrested early Sunday in connection with the murder of Jan Suraaj supporter Dular Chand Yadav.

Yadav, a gangster-turned-politician formerly associated with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), was killed while campaigning in Mokama on Thursday for Priyadarshi Piyush, a candidate of Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party in these assembly polls.

Singh, the JD(U) candidate from Mokama and husband of sitting MLA Neelam Devi, was arrested from his residence in Barh along with two others, Manikant Thakur and Ranjeet Ram, who were also present during the incident.

"Police have arrested three persons — Anant Singh, Manikant Thakur and Ranjeet Ram — in connection with the murder of Dular Chand Yadav," confirmed Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Patna, Kartikeya Sharma, during a late-night press conference with Patna District Magistrate Thyagarajan SM.

He revealed that Yadav's post-mortem report indicated death from cardiorespiratory failure due to shock caused by injury to the heart and lungs from a hard and blunt substance.

"Therefore, the post-mortem report and preliminary investigation suggest that it's a case of murder," Sharma stated.

When speaking to reporters on Thursday, Singh claimed he was "far away" from the location where Yadav had an argument with his supporters.

"I do not know what exactly happened, but some of my people have complained that Yadav's henchmen vandalized their vehicles," he said.

Singh also accused the husband of his RJD rival Veena Devi: "It must be the handiwork of Suraj Bhan. He orchestrated the killing so that I get a bad name."

In the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, Anant Singh won the Mokama seat as an RJD candidate but was later disqualified after his conviction under the Arms Act in 2022. His wife, Neelam Devi, subsequently won the bypoll.

Following Yadav's murder in Mokama, the Election Commission on Saturday transferred Patna Superintendent of Police (Rural) Vikram Sihag.

The Commission also ordered replacement of the sub-divisional officer of Barh (who serves as returning officer for the Mokama assembly seat), sub-divisional police officer Barh-1, and sub-divisional police officer Barh-2.

While ordering disciplinary proceedings against all three, it directed that Abhishek Singh, the sub-divisional police officer of Barh-2, be placed under suspension.

Bihar is scheduled to vote in two phases on November 6 and 11, with vote counting set for November 14.