In a daring act of daylight crime in the house of RJD MP Umashankar Singh in Bihar’s Chapra on Wednesday afternoon, unidentified criminals armed with AK-47 rifles shot dead three people less than an hour after the MP from Maharajganj constituency left the house.
About a dozen armed men reached the MP’s newly purchased house in Chapra town in a jeep at about 3.30 pm and shot dead former mukhiya (village council head) Devendra Singh, his driver Dinesh Rai and Mani Bhushan Singh, who were in the house, before escaping. The police reached the spot soon after the firing and began investigations but refused to say anything about the possible reasons behind the murders that indicated the vulnerability of high elected representatives of the people in Bihar.
The MP, who has been at serious odds with the party and its head Lalu Prasad Yadav since the 2010 Bihar Assembly polls, later said: “I was anticipating such attacks, which is why I had written to both the state and Central governments urging them to improve my security details. I have no idea who the killers were. I am lucky for being alive. I left the house less than an hour before it happened.”
The attack on Mr Singh’s house and the three murders it caused bring to sharp focus a recent spurt in threats and extortion demands made by text messages received by several legislators, MPs and ministers in Bihar. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar said after learning of the murders that the perpetrators would be soon caught and brought to justice.
Three main theories began circulating soon after the attack on the MP’s house — that it could be by the Maoists or criminals or a consequence of the cut-throat political rivalries in Chapra, which was described as more likely of all.
Umashankar Singh has grown distant from the RJD ever since former Maharajganj MP Prabhunath Singh of the JD(U), who was defeated in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, was inducted into the RJD.