PATNA: Trouble for former RJD MLA Anant Kumar Singh alias Chhote Sarkar deepened on Thursday when he was awarded 10 years’ imprisonment in yet another case lodged under the Arms Act. The latest case relates to the recovery of six magazines of Insas rifle and a foreign-made bulletproof jacket from his bungalow in 2015.
The MP/MLA court in Patna had last week held Singh guilty in connection with the case pertaining to recoveries made by the police from his residence under the Secretariat Police Station in the state capital during a raid on June 24, 2015. The court had fixed July 21 as the date of pronouncement of judgment.
On Thursday, as soon as the court resumed, judge Triloki Nath Dubey handed out the jail term to Singh, who was brought for the hearing from the Beur central jail under tight security arrangement.
After stepping out of the court, Singh reacted sharply to the order, saying, “This is a deep-rooted conspiracy hatched against me at the behest of the state government. But I have faith in high court and the Supreme Court, which will deliver justice to me.”
Singh’s legal counsel Sunil Singh said they would appeal against the verdict. “The so-called seized items were never sent for forensic test. The raid at his Patna house was a part of political conspiracy to implicate my client,” he added.
This is the second time the politician has been convicted in a criminal case. On June 21, he was sentenced to a 10-year jail term in a case related to the recovery of an AK-47 assault rifle and hand grenades from his native village Ladma in Patna district.