Former Mokama MLA and Bahubali leader Anant Singh surrendered in Patna’s Barh Court on Friday afternoon. He was sent to Beur Jail in Patna in judicial custody.
This case is related to the Sonu-Monu gang. On the evening of 22 January, there was a shootout in Nauranga Jalalpur village, 110 km from the capital Patna.
While coming out of the Barh court premises, Anant Singh told the media, “The rule is of the government, the rule has to be followed. An FIR was lodged against us, so we surrendered and are going to jail.”
Anant Singh came out of jail in August 2024 after being acquitted in the Arms Act. He wants to contest from Mokama seat in the Bihar Legislative Assembly to be held this year. At present, his wife Neelam Devi is an MLA from this seat.
What is the whole matter?
On January 22, there was a shootout between the faction of former Bahubali MLA Anant Singh and the Sonu-Monu gang.
This firing took place at around 4:30 pm in Nauranga-Jalalpur village under Panchmahala police station of Mokama block of Patna. In this village, strongman Anant Singh had gone to meet two brothers named Sonu-Monu.
Sonu-Monu has a brick kiln in which a person named Mukesh Kumar Singh works as a clerk. Mukesh Singh is a resident of Hemja village. The distance between Nauranga village and Hemja village is about one kilometer. Sonu-Monu has a dispute with Mukesh Kumar Singh over money.
Mukesh Kumar Singh tells BBC, “Sonu Monu accuses us of embezzling Rs 60 lakh, but we are poor people. They locked my house, so we went to the police station. But no one listened to us there, so we took our complaint to the MLA (Anant Singh). The MLA first came to our house (Hemja village) and opened the lock. Later, when he went to Nauranga to meet Sonu Monu, he sent his man Uday Yadav to call Sonu Monu. But Sonu Monu shot at Uday Yadav and injured him.”
Baahubali MLA Anant Singh has also told the same thing to the media.
Sonu-Monu’s father Pramod Singh told the local media, “Anant Singh’s people fired first. Since we did not help Neelam Devi (Anant Singh’s wife) in the elections, they are targeting us.”
After this incident, Barh ASP Rakesh Kumar told the media that 15 to 20 rounds of bullets were fired in this firing. However, the local claim is that at least 70 rounds of bullets were fired.
Firing again on Friday morning
After this incident on January 22, Munshi Mukesh Kumar Singh claimed that firing took place at 5 am on January 24 as well.
Mukesh Kumar Singh told BBC, “At 5 am, Sonu and his supporters fired indiscriminately at our house. They would fire and collect the shells. We are very scared.”
However, Patna’s rural SP Vikram Sihag on Friday called the claim of firing ‘suspicious’.
He told BBC, “The occurrence of such an incident in such a situation of police deployment raises suspicion. Apart from this, four FIRs have been registered in the firing case on January 22. One has been registered by Anant Singh, the second by Mukesh Singh, the third by Pachmahala police station, and the fourth by Sonu Monu’s mother Urmila. In this case, Sonu as well as Roshan from Anant Singh’s group have been arrested.”
Who is Sonu Monu?
Sonu-Monu are two brothers who live in Nauranga village. Sonu is the younger brother and Monu is the elder brother. These brothers have a brick kiln and soil business. Their father Pramod Kumar is a lawyer in Barh Court and their mother Urmila Sinha is the head of the area.
Sonu Monu has a criminal history. According to Barh ASP Rakesh Kumar, 12 cases have been registered against Sonu-Monu. Local journalist Anubhav Kumar says, “The enmity between Sonu-Monu and Anant Singh’s gang has been old. But in recent years, the relationship between the two has improved. In the year 2024, both of them met Anant Singh after returning from jail.”
Anant Singh is also called ‘Chhote Sarkar’ in this area.
His family has dominated the Mokama assembly seat of Bihar. His elder brother Dilip Singh won from this seat in 1990 and 1995 and Anant Singh remained on this seat after the year 2005. However, his ancestral home i.e. Ladma village falls in the Barh assembly.
Many criminal cases have been registered against Anant Singh. According to an ADR report, according to the affidavit filed by Anant Singh in the assembly elections held in the year 2020, 38 criminal cases were registered against him.
His status can be gauged from the fact that recently Nitish Kumar reached Anant Singh’s native village Ladma to meet him during his Barh tour.
Former IPS Amitabh Das says on the firing incident and Anant Singh, “It seems that a grand alliance of mafias is being formed against Anant Singh. Sonu Monu is a very small criminal. He has the support of Suraj Bhan Singh, Nalini Ranjan Sharma alias Lallan Singh (BJP coordinator in Mokama assembly), and Ashok Mahato who broke the jail.” Avinash Chandra Mishra, editor of the magazine ‘Tamapar’ which has been published since 1997, tells BBC, “This incident will have an impact on his contesting elections and voting in his favor. His vote base is based on terror and emerging criminals like Sonu Monu have challenged this terror by challenging him. This is also an important question where did Sonu Monu get the strength to fire at Anant Singh or his supporters?”
Journalist Avinash Chandra Mishra also says, “It seems that Anant Singh has been caught in a trap.”
Mokama: Once a region of pulses, now of guns
The area from Patna’s Fatuha to the Lakhisarai assembly constituency is called ‘Tal’. The area of Tal is considered fertile for pulse crops.
Mokama assembly constituency is one of them. All these areas have been famous for pulses in the past. The pulses grown here were earlier sent to Bangladesh.
But later this area has been in the news for Anant Singh and muscle power. There have been dozens of musclemen like Dilip Singh, Anant Singh, Suraj Bhan Singh, and Nalini Ranjan Sharma (Lalan Singh) in this area.
Mokama assembly constituency is also a part of the Munger Lok Sabha constituency whose current MP is JDU’s Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh.
After the firing incident on January 22, and on January 23, Anant Singh and Sonu, i.e. two accused, kept challenging each other through media interviews throughout the day.
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, commented on this and said, “Criminals are giving interviews. Can you understand the state of law and order from this? Law and order has become a criminal disorder.”
At the same time, Munger MP Lallan Singh said, “Tejashwi Yadav should answer why he gave the ticket to Anant Singh. Why did he give the ticket to his wife?”
Apart from these statements, a journalist who closely observes the politics of Mokama tells BBC, “There is a super boss here who wants all the criminals to be under him. He keeps telling everyone their place from time to time, this incident has also happened in the same background.”
This incident has raised questions on the law and order of Bihar, but at the same time, it has indicated the electoral future of Anant Singh and the mood of the electoral chessboard to be laid out in the Bihar Assembly.
