Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Anant Singh was disqualified by the Bihar assembly on Friday, less than a month after his conviction in a case related to the recovery of arms and ammunition, including an AK-47 rifle, from his residence, as per an official order.
Singh, four-time MLA from Mokama in Patna district, was convicted by a special MP-MLA court in June this year and was sentenced to 10 years of rigourous imprisonment.
The order comes into effect from June 21, almost midway through his current term.
“In the light of the MP/MLA court in Barh passing the order of conviction and sentence against Anant Kumar Singh, his membership is terminated in accordance with the provisions of the Representative of People’s Act, 1951, and Article 191 (1-e) of the Constitution with effect from June 21, 2022 (the day of conviction). As a result, the list of the Vidhan Sabha members is amended,” stated the notification issued by Pawan Kumar Pandey, secretary of the Bihar Vidhan Sabha.
The case in which Singh was convicted pertains to the recovery of one AK-47 assault rifle, two hand grenades and live cartridges when the police in rural Patna’s Barh raided his native village Ladma on August 16, 2019.
The Patna police lodged a case against him and others under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019.
Singh, who was on the run after the police issued a lookout notice against him, appeared before Saket court in Delhi on August 23, 2019, and surrendered.
Singh, who is locally known as “Chhote Sarkaar” and enjoys the image of a strong man, is also facing several other criminal cases, including those of murder, extortion and kidnapping, as per his election documents. He is currently lodged at the Beur Central Jail in Patna.
In 2013, the Supreme Court had ruled that members of Parliament and MLAs, who have been convicted, will be immediately disqualified from holding membership of the House without being given three months’ time to appeal. Earlier, there was a provision under Section 8 (4) of the RP Act, 1951, to move the higher court. But the apex court struck down this section.
With the termination of Singh’s assembly membership, the tally of opposition RJD, which is the single largest party in the 243-member Bihar assembly, went down to 79.
Singh is the third RJD MLA to have lost assembly membership in the last four years.
On December 27, 2018, the state assembly terminated the membership of Raj Ballabh Yadav, RJD MLA from Nawada, after he was sentenced for life in a case involving rape of a minor.
In November 2018, senior RJD MLA and former minister Illiyas Hussain, who was convicted and awarded five years’ imprisonment in a multi-crore bitumen scam by a CBI court on September 27, 2018, too lost his assembly membership.
In 2015, BJP MLA Ram Naresh Prasad Yadav too lost his membership after he was convicted and sentenced to 10-year rigorous imprisonment for being involved in an attack on the Sitamarhi collectorate and subsequent firing in 1998. His wife Gayatri Devi currently represents the Parihar seat in Sitamarhi.
After the 2020 Assembly elections, a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) showed that 163 (68%) out of the 241 newly elected leaders from all parties in the 243-member Bihar assembly had declared criminal cases. The figure, as per the study, was higher than 2015, when 142 (58%) MLAs declared criminal cases.
“The number of candidates declared serious criminal cases in 2020 was 123 (51%), which included 19 having declared murder cases, while 31 reported attempt to murder cases and eight crimes against women. In 2015, MLAs having declared serious criminal cases was 98,” the report said.
DM Diwakar, former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, said that the main responsibility of cleaning the political system was with the political parties.
“Else, what is happening is that the court is convicting one leader and he starts politics from back door through his wife and son. Political parties will have to show their will for it, like social leader Madhu Limaye once did. When his party men wanted to field his wife, he offered to resign though he was a tall leader. A tainted person doing active politics through kin happens in every political party and that is where the problem lies. The courts should dispose of all such cases at the earliest and if that happens, more will lose membership,” he said.
