PATNA: RJD MLA Anant Kumar Singh was disqualified on Friday by the Bihar Vidhan Sabha following his conviction in a case related to recovery of arms and ammunition, including an AK-47 assault rifle, from his residence at Nadwa village under Barh police station in Patna district in 2019.
Singh, who represented Mokama assembly constituency, was sentenced 10-year imprisonment in the arms and ammunition recovery case by a special court on June 21 this year.
According to a notification issued by the Vidhan Sabha secretariat, Singh has been disqualified with effect from June 21, the date on which he was sentenced by the special court.
With his disqualification, the number of RJD MLAs in the 243-member assembly has been reduced to 79. However, the RJD continues to remain the single largest party in the assembly, followed by the BJP (77 MLAs).
Singh, popularly known as 'Chhote Sarkar' among his followers in Barh-Mokama area, is also facing several other criminal cases, including those of murder, extortion and kidnapping, as per his affidavit submitted at the time of filing of nomination papers for the assembly election. He is currently lodged at the Beur Central Jail in Patna.
An AK-47 rifle, two hand grenades and 26 live cartridges were recovered from Singh's house and the special court for MP-MLAs cases had on June 14 this year held him guilty in the case.
A team of Patna police, headed by then City SP Lipi Singh, had raided the house of Singh on August 16, 2019. Lipi, an IPS officer, is daughter of former Union minister and senior JD(U) leader RCP Singh. At the time of the raid, Singh was not in Bihar. He fled to Delhi and surrendered before a lower court in the national capital. Bihar police took his custody and put him behind the bars. Since then, Singh has been lodged in the Beur central jail.
Singh is the third Bihar MLA to be disqualified by the assembly due to conviction in criminal cases. Earlier, RJD MLAs Ilyas Hussain and Raj Ballabh Yadav were disqualified from the assembly after their conviction in the bitumen scam and the minor girl rape case, respectively.
