RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s regime is often remembered for the tyranny of Siwan’s don-turned-former-MP Mohammed Shahabuddin, but it was not only him who wielded unimaginable influence in his fiefdom; there were many. Anand Mohan was one of them who made his mark on the strength of his brawny power. It is another matter that he pursued anti-Lalu politics to polarise the upper castes in his favour. With state elections looming, prison rules were recently amended to release Anand, who’s reportedly a supporter of CM Nitish Kumar.
It could not be denied though that politics and crime existed side by side when Lalu was at the helm in Bihar. Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, former MP from Madhepura, was a trigger-happy gangster during the 90s, and so were political leaders Surajbhan Singh, Ashok Samrat, Satish Pandey and Ritlal Yadav. Awadhesh Mandal, Butan Singh, Tikkar Singh and Khikhar Singh too used to call the shots even from behind bars during the Lalu-Rabri regime.
Today, nearly 70 per cent MLAs (163 out of 243) in the Bihar Assembly have criminal cases against them, ranging from murder, and attempt to murder to kidnapping and a crime against women, according to data from Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). Similarly, in the 75-member upper house, out of 60 MLCs analysed by ADR, 38 have criminal cases pending against them.
Former Patna College principal Dr Nawal Kishore Choudhary says, “Politicians are protecting criminals for their vested interests. RJD protected gangster Shahabuddin while Nitish Kumar had once supported muscleman Anant Singh. Nitish even changed rules to ensure the release of Anand Mohan, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of a district magistrate.”
Anand Mohan singh
Gangster-turned-politician Anand Mohan is a free man after spending 16 years in jail, but his political influence over the Kosi region baffles one and all. Anand had once climbed the ladder of success in politics by opposing RJD chief Lalu Prasad, but they buried the hatchet after the former’s son Chetan Anand became an RJD MLA from Sheohar. Like Lalu, Nitish Kumar and Sushil Kumar Modi, he is also a product of the JP movement. He had also taken an active part in the protests that followed the implementation of Mandal Commission’s recommendations, reserving 27 per cent of seats for OBCs in government jobs. It helped him to strengthen his position as a leader of upper castes, particularly in north Bihar.
Anand was serving a life sentence following his conviction in the 1994 murder of Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiah. Earlier, the Bihar government had deleted the clause in the state’s Prison Manual that had forbidden the remission of jail term for those convicted of murdering a public servant on duty, thus paving the way for Anand’s release. He was convicted for inciting a mob that was leading
a protest march in Vaishali against the killing of muscleman Kaushlendra Kumar alias Chhotan Shukla. Krishnaiah, who was on his way back to Gopalganj from Hajipur on December 5, 1994, was lynched by attendees in Shukla’s funeral procession at Khabra village near Muzaffarpur.
According to the prosecution’s submission in the Patna High Court in 2008, Anand and others participating in Chhotan Shukla’s funeral procession provoked his brother Bhutkun to shoot Krishnaiah as he was part of the government that killed Chhotan in an encounter. He was sentenced to death in 2007 by a lower court in Bihar. The Patna High Court, however, commuted it to life imprisonment and that order was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012. Before his capital punishment was commuted to a life sentence, he was the first politician in independent India to be given the death penalty.
Raees & Ayub KHAN
After former RJD MP and muscleman Mohammed Shahabuddin succumbed to Covid in 2021, gangster Raees Khan and his elder brother Ayub Khan are trying to establish their supremacy in Siwan. Once close associates of Shahabuddin, their relationship soured after Raees’s father, Mohammed Qamrul Haque, contested the 2005 Assembly elections against Shahabudin’s close aide, Vikram Kuer.
Raees’s name has figured in the murder of property dealer Firoz Khan, who was gunned down in Delhi’s Dwarka in 2018. Ayub, on the other hand, is facing charges in a triple murder case and was arrested from Purnea in January last year. Raees had unsuccessfully contested the Bihar legislative council elections as an independent––he secured the second position.
After the polls last year, on April 4, Raees’s cavalcade was attacked as outlaws opened fire using an AK-47 rifle and other sophisticated weapons. The gangster then lodged a case against Shahabuddin’s son Osama Shahab.
Raees has already announced that he would be contesting in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and has disclosed that he is an accused in 12 cases of murder, kidnapping and other offences in his affidavit. He says, “My enmity with Shahabuddin is no secret. The cases were lodged against us at his behest.”
Anant singh
Chhote Sarkar, as Anant Singh is popularly called by his supporters, is known for his flamboyance: a python as a pet, driving a horse chariot and always flaunting a hat. He is currently behind bars following his conviction in the Arms Act for 10 years, which resulted in his disqualification from the Bihar Legislative Assembly. Soon after, his wife Neelam Devi won the Mokama by-polls on an RJD ticket, reinforcing that his influence over Mokama-Barh Tal diara (riverine belt) of Patna district remains undiminished. While in active politics, he was a frequent newsmaker. Once, he made headlines for purchasing Lalu Prasad’s horse, and then in 2013, when he left his Mercedes and rode a buggy to the Assembly.
Having been a four-time MLA since 2005–– twice on a JD(U) ticket, once as an independent candidate, and finally, on an RJD ticket––Mokama is considered Anant’s fiefdom. In 2020, he won while in jail. More than 38 criminal cases, including kidnapping, extortion and murder have been lodged against him. Neelam Devi says, “Saheb (as Anant is referred to) ko galat tarike se fasaya gaya hai (Saheb has been falsely implicated) because of his growing popularity, but he continues to remain in the heart of millions of his supporters.”
IPS officer Vikas Vaibhav recalls the arrangements around Anant’s residence in the state capital to arrest him in a case, when he was posted as SSP of Patna. “He wields immense political clout. So, we had to take all precautions before barging into his home,” he adds. Anant was arrested in connection with the murder of Putus Yadav, who was allegedly kidnapped and killed in Barh police station area, allegedly by the gangster’s henchmen for misbehaving with his close relatives in the local market.
The viral picture from a few years ago of Anant with Nitish Kumar where the CM is standing with folded hands is enough to gauge the don’s clout. “Anant had helped Nitish win elections from erstwhile Barh Lok Sabha seat,” says a close aide of Anant.
Surendra Prasad Yadav
Surendra Prasad Yadav, a senior RJD leader, is a minister in the grand alliance government in Bihar. Popularly called ‘Magadh Samrat’ with a ‘Robinhood’ image, the six-term MLA from Belaganj and one-term MP has at least 17 cases pending against him, including one under the POCSO Act, and another for beating up doctors of AN Magadh Medical College and Hospital in Gaya in 2011.
His younger brother, Raj Kumar alias Mantu Yadav, has at least 11 cases of murder, kidnapping and extortion pending against him. Currently lodged in the Bhagalpur Central Jail, he is said to have amassed huge assets through the illicit liquor trade. Surendra says. “I have been in social life for more than four decades. Most of the cases were filed during the initial days of my political career. I have not been proven guilty in any of them. It’s obvious that they were lodged on frivolous grounds.”
Narendra Kumar pandey
Lauded by admirers for wielding a gun and pen with equal elan, the frail-looking gangster of Bihar, Narendra Kumar Pandey alias Sunil Pandey earned the sobriquet Doctor Don after his PhD on Lord Mahavir’s philosophy of Ahimsa. Pandey’s name figured in the kidnapping of Patna’s noted neurosurgeon Ramesh Chandra in 2003, and then in the murder of Brahmeshwar Mukhiya, the chief of Ranvir Sena, a private army of landlords in 2012.
Son of a sand contractor, he went to Bengaluru in the 90s to study engineering, only to return to his village after he stabbed somebody in the institute following an altercation. Pandey’s political stature rose after he managed to bring together gang lords such as Rama Singh, Anant Singh, Surajbhan Singh, Munna Shukla, Dhumal Singh and Rajan Tiwari with an ambition to make Nitish the Bihar chief minister after the 2000 Assembly elections had thrown a hung assembly. It is another matter that the government had fallen only after seven days. Last year, Pandey made headlines after he opened fire during a stage performance of singer-dancer Sapna Choudhary.
The eldest among four brothers, he has over 40 cases of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, kidnapping and loot registered against him. “Only a few cases are pending against him in courts in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. He is currently on bail in those cases,” says Sunil’s younger brother and former MLC Hulas, who reigns over the Shahabad region, comprising Rohtas, Kaimur, Bhojpur and Buxar districts. Sunil is currently cooling his heels in Mirzapur jail in Uttar Pradesh.
Bindeshwari alias Bindi Yadav
Bindi Yadav of Gaya, who died of Covid in 2020, spelt terror in the Magadh region, comprising Gaya, Jehanabad, Aurangabad and Arwal districts, for almost three decades. At least 17 cases of murder, kidnapping, extortion and dacoity were pending against him when his son Rocky shot dead a Class XII student Aditya in a road-rage incident in Bodh Gaya; both father and son were convicted.
Bindi’s wife Manorama Devi was then a JD(U) MLC. Bindi was also booked under the Crime Control Act twice following the recovery of 6,000 cartridges of the prohibited bore. Bindi’s clout can be gauged from the fact that several businessmen left Gaya for fear of either being kidnapped or killed. Manorama Devi, however, claims that her husband was framed in fabricated cases due to political rivalry. “My husband was known as a messiah of the poor,” she recalls. She is also facing charges under relevant sections of the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act 2016.