RJD MLA Anant Singh has been held guilty of illegally possessing banned arms including AK-47 and explosives. Triloki Dubey’s MP-MLA special court will announce the punishment against Bahubali Mokama MLA and co-accused Sunil Ram on June 21.
The court on Tuesday convicted him under the Arms Act, Explosive Substances Act and IPC. The maximum punishment for illegally possessing an AK-47 is life imprisonment under Section 25(1) AAA of the Arms Act.
The special court, after appreciating and weighing all the evidence on record, observed that the prosecution proved its case “beyond all reasonable doubts”. Besides several documentary evidence, the prosecution had examined 13 witnesses. Surprisingly, there were 34 defense witnesses in support of the accused.
According to the prosecution case, on 16 August 2019, police raided Anant’s ancestral house at village Ladma in Barh subdivision of Patna district on specific information and seized one AK-47 and grenades from there. Anant and Sunil were made accused in the FIR (389/2019). He was arrested on October 15, 2020 by the special court for framing of charges against him.
The prosecution was represented by Special Public Prosecutor Ajay Mishra while the defense was represented by Advocates Ram Vinay Singh and Sunil Kumar.
On 16 August 2019, under the leadership of the then City SP Lipi Singh, a team of Patna Police conducted raids in Nadwa under Barh police station, the native village of Anant Singh.
According to the theory of the police, the raiding team had seized one AK-47 rifle, 26 live cartridges and two grenades. While the AK-47 rifle was hidden in a hut behind a large compartment, grenades were recovered from the adjoining hut. Police said the AK-47 was uniformly wrapped in a plastic bag, followed by layers of carbon, to avoid detection in metal detectors during transport.
Anant Singh was not in Bihar at the time of the raid. He fled to Delhi and surrendered before the trial court there. The Bihar Police took him into custody and put him behind the bars of Patna Beur Jail. Since then he is lodged in Beur Jail. During the three-year trial of the case, the prosecution produced 13 witnesses and their statements were recorded in the court. The defense also produced 34 witnesses in the court.
The trial of the case was completed on June 13 and he was convicted on June 14. The house in Nadwa village belongs to Anant Singh but he was not living in it and was being run by a caretaker.
