Notorious contract killer wanted in 22 criminal cases arrested in Indian state
Dreaded gangster arrested from residential premises of ruling party parliamentarian
Patna: Bihar police have arrested a dreaded gangster from the residential premises of a ruling party parliamentarian Ajay Mandal. The gangster Kapil Yadav, a notorious contract killer, was wanted in 22 criminal cases registered with various police stations in the state.
Police said the gangster had reached the Bhagalpur-based residence of Mandal, a Janata Dal United (JD-U) Member of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha, on Friday morning to seek some road contracts when the police caught him. The cops also seized the bike on which he rode to meet the parliamentarian.
“The gangster was on surveillance. Once we got to know that he had gone to the leader’s residence, we surrounded the area and nabbed him while he was trying to escape after meeting the parliamentarian,” a police official from Bhagalpur district said on Saturday.
According to the official, the police wanted to arrest him from the MP’s residence itself but later dropped its plan due to protocol. “So, we waited for the gangster to come out of the MP’s residence instead of his arrest,” the police official said, adding the gangster was being interrogated.
The parliamentarian told the media that the arrested man had called him saying he wanted to meet him after which he invited him to his residence. “It was after his arrest that I came to know he is a dreaded gangster,” the parliamentarian said on Saturday.
According to the leader, the gangster demanded two road contacts to make some “earnings” but he refused citing fund crisis due to COVID-19. He said he also served tea twice during the meeting “but I was not aware of his background”.
Criminal-politician nexus remains a matter of debate in India. Aside from this, many leaders holding key positions face serious criminal charges against them.
According to a latest report of the Association For Democratic Reforms Poll Rights Group for Democratic Reforms (ADR), at least 42 per cent of ministers in the Prime Minister Narendra Modi cabinet 2.0 post the reshuffle have declared criminal cases against them.
The ADR report states that one of the ministers Nisith Pramanik has declared case related to murder against himself while three other ministers John Barla, Pankaj Choudhary and V Murleedharan have cases related to murder attempts.
