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Crime and politics make for a heady brew in Bihar

Shaji Joseph in Patna

Despite the public outrage over the growing nexus between criminals and politicians, almost all the political parties in Bihar have fielded candidates with dubious antecedents to fight the Lok Sabha election.

Political bosses, who are actively involved in the debate on how criminality in public life could be combated, appear to have forgotten the issue for the time being. And thus, we have a list of candidates -- accused in crimes ranging from murder and rape through abduction, dacoity and assault to the comparatively better breach of peace -- which ridicules the Election Commission's attempts to prevent the entry of undesirable elements to Parliament.

Among them, standing tall, is former Union minister of state for home Mohammad Taslimuddin, fielded by Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal. The Kishanganj candidate has 10 criminal cases pending against him for offences like forgery, rape, dacoity, extortion and breach of peace. He has been notorious for his muscle-fluxing tactics in the Araria, Kishanganj and Purnea districts, and has been shifting loyalty between all major political parties. In one of the first information reports, filed with the Araria police station under section 342 of the Indian Penal Code, Taslimuddin is said to have forcibly confined a Santhali girl at his home.

"The MP and his two associates drank alcohol and did the wrong things with the girl all night," an eyewitness says in the FIR.

Another dubious character put forward by the RJD is Mohamad Shahabuddin, from the Siwan segment. Known as the 'Terror of Siwan', Sahabuddin has at least 24 criminal cases -- murders and extortions included -- pending against him. Sohabu, as he is popularly known, shot at Siwan district police superintendent S K Singhal on May 3, 1996. And he is the prime accused in the brutal murder of several CPI-ML activists, including that of former Jawaharlal Nehru University president Chandrasekhar on March 31, 1997.

Purena contestant and sitting legislator Dilip Kumar Yadav is another RJD candidate who mocks the EC's Code of Conduct. He has a dozen-odd criminal cases -- murder, criminal conspiracy, breach of peace and the like -- pending, and was, till recently, a confidante of Rajesh Ranjan 'Pappu' Yadav. He is now contesting against his Samajwadi Party ex-pal. Dilip Kumar faces criminal charges under sections 302, 364, 201, 144 and 379 of the IPC and sections 34 and 27 of the Arms Act.

Rashtriya Janata Party leader Anand Mohan, who is contesting from Sheogar, has been in the news off and on for his involvement in a number of criminal activities including criminal conspiracy, arson, murder and abduction. Supported by the RJD, the Rajput leader has about 35 cases against him in the Shaharsa, Madhepura and Muzaffarpur districts. He has been behind bars several times under the National Security Act , the Maintenance of Internal Security Act, the Crime Control Act and the Arms Act.

Mohan shot into a measure of fame after killing a rapist who was convalescing in hospital. During the anti-reservation agitation, he lead the upper-caste offensive against the terror unleashed by 'Pappu' Yadav in the Kosi area. Known as the 'Stormy petrol of Saharsa', Mohan is the main accused in Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiya's murder in December 1994. He is also charged with the killing of Raj Kumar Choudhari, the flamboyant Independent candidate from Madhepura, during the 1991 parliamentary election. He won the last Lok Sabha poll from Sheogar as a Samata Party candidate, conducting most of his campaign from prison.

'Pappu' Yadav, state Samajwadi Party president and its nominee for Purnea, is an accused in 33 cases. He acquired notoriety in the early 1990s when he led the Yadav offensive in the anti-reservation stir. He was booked under NSA for creating a civil war-like situation in the Madhepura-Saharsa belt. In June 1991, three murder cases were lodged against him. He has been charged with shaving off a policeman's mustache in public and pushing a DSP in front of a fast-moving vehicle.

In order to facilitate 'Pappu's' surrender, then chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav had to make a personal appeal. 'Pappu' surrendered, and was soon released on bail.

The Samajwadi Party candidate from Mothihari, Devendranath Dubey, has been an absconder who always won on the strength of his fire power. Dubey, who faces about 20 cases involving murder, loot, rape, kidnapping and arson, had won the 1995 assembly election as an Independent from Gobindganj in the east Champaran district. He was in jail during the election.

The BJP-Samata combine has not lagged behind in granting tickets to dubious characters. The Samata party nominee from Khagaria, Shakuni Choudhary, is an accused in about six criminal cases. Besides being charged under sections 147, 148, 324 and 448 of the IPC, the Tarapur MLA has also been booked under the Arms Act and the Representation of Peoples Act.

Another Samata Party candidate Prabhunath Singh, contesting the Maharajganj seat, was released from jail only a couple of months ago. He has about 40 cases registered against him. These include murder, kidnapping, robbery etc. He is the main accused in the murder of JD legislator Ashok Singh, who was killed in a bomb attack in July 1995.

The BJP's Sitamarhi nominee, Awanesh Kumar Singh, is an accused in a murder case lodged at the Kanda Chainpur police station in east Champaran district in 1989. He has also been chargesheeted in three other cases. In an FIR lodged against him in Pathahi, Singh has been charged under section 27 of the Arms Act.

Kali Pandey, the Jan Congress candidate from Gopalganj, is yet another dubious character in the fray. Kali Charan, the dreaded villain in Ramoji Rao's hit Pratighat, was said to be modelled on him.

Accused in quite a few cases, Vijay Singh Soy, the Congress nominee from Singhbum, was convicted for murder by a trial court. However, the judgment was reversed by the high court. The case is now pending in the Supreme Court.

And finally Laloo Yadav. Inarguably, it is this fodder scam accused who reigns supreme on the list. Laloo can still weave his magic among the Bihar electorate and will lock horns with Janata Dal supremo and hawala tainted Sharad Yadav in Madhepura. His co-accused and former Union minister Chandra Rao Prasad Verma, meanwhile, will contest from Arrah.

The other tainted contestants are Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (S) chief Shibu Soren and former Union minister Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav of the Jan Congress. While Soren, an accused in the JMM payoffs case, is contesting the Dumka parliamentary seat, Ram Lakhan, chargesheeted in the urea scam, is fighting the Arrah seat.

Former Union minister for food and civil supplies Devendra Prasad Yadav, fighting the Jhanjharpur seat on a JD ticket, is the main accused in Congressman Upendra Yadav's murder. The FIR, lodged with the Phulparas police by the former minister's cousin Deonath Yadav, a legislator, charges the JD leader under sections 302 and 120-b of the IPC. The case is pending in the Jhanjharpur chief judicial magistrate's court.

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