Rajo Singh murder case: Six accused let off for want of evidence

A court in Bihar’s Sheikhpura on Friday acquitted six accused in the case of sensational killing of former Congress MP from Begusarai, Rajo Singh, and a clerk of rural works department, a lawyer associated with the case said.

A court in Bihar’s Sheikhpura on Friday acquitted six accused in the case of sensational killing of former Congress MP from Begusarai, Rajo Singh, and a clerk of rural works department, a lawyer associated with the case said.

Additional public prosecutor Shambhu Sharan Singh told HT that the court of additional district and sessions judge Sanjay Kumar Singh had on Monday reserved the order after hearing. (Picture for representation)

Singh, one of the most prominent Congress leaders of the state then, was shot dead by three assailants at the district Congress office in Sheikhpura on the night of September 9, 2005. Clerk Shyam Kishore Singh also died in the indiscriminate firing.

The police had registered a first information report (FIR) against seven persons, including the then Congress leader Ashok Chaudhary who is currently a minister, and Randhir Kumar Soni, then a former JD(U) MLA from Sheikhpura, on the basis of the statement of Singh’s grandson Sudarshan Kumar, currently JD(U) MLA from Barbigha constituency.

Choudhary’s name was subsequently removed from the FIR, as the police found no evidence against him. Later, police included three more persons as accused.

Additional public prosecutor Shambhu Sharan Singh told HT that the court of additional district and sessions judge Sanjay Kumar Singh had on Monday reserved the order after hearing. On Friday, the court acquitted all six accused for want of evidence.

During the hearing of the case, the prosecution side produced 36 witnesses, of which 33 turned hostile. The MLA from Barbigha, who is the complainant in the case, told the court on Thursday that he was no more interested in fighting the case.

Rajo Singh himself was an accused in the Tantipul massacre case in which the then Munger district RJD president Kashinath Yadav and eight RJD workers were killed in December 2001. Singh and his son Sanjay Singh (then a Congress MLA) were among the 11 accused in the case.

On October 6, 2010, Sanjay Singh, by then a former minister, died of a massive heart attack in Munger district court premises soon after the court convicted him in the massacre case.