Patna: A special court in Patna on Tuesday sentenced RJD MLA from Mokama assembly seat, Anant Singh, to 10 years in jail in connection with a case related to the recovery of an AK-47 rifle, cartridges, and hand grenades from his house in 2019.
The MP-MLA Court of Special Judge Triloki Dubey pronounced the quantum of punishment. Anant Singh, popularly known as 'Chhote Sarkaar', was convicted in the case on June 14. The Bahubali MLA of RJD from Mokama is currently lodged in Beur Jail of Patna. A team of Patna police headed by then City SP Lipi Singh raided the house of Anant Singh in his native village Nadwan under Barh police station on August 16, 2019. As per the police theory, the raiding team had seized an AK-47 rifle, two hand grenades, and 26 live cartridges of AK-47 from his house.
During the hearing of this case, the prosecution side produced 13 witnesses and their statements were recorded in the court. The defense side also produced 34 witnesses. The house of Nadwan village belongs to Anant Singh but he was not living in it. The house was given to a caretaker to look after the premises. The AK-47 was kept in a hutment. The hand grenades were recovered from the adjoining hut. The police said that the AK-47 was evenly wrapped in a plastic bag followed by layers of carbon to avoid detection in metal detectors during transportation.
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Singh fled after the arms were seized from his house during an 11-hour-long police operation in 2019. Later, he had released a video in which he had claimed that political forces were "conspiring" against him in the case and that he would be directly surrendering at the court instead of doing so before the police. The MLA was formerly known to be close to chief minister Nitish Kumar but fell out with him ahead of the 2015 assembly elections, which led to his exit from the JD(U). He contested the 2015 elections as an Independent and retained the Mokama seat, which he has been winning since 2005. Later, he joined RJD.
