Gangster shot dead in Bihar CJM court

Patna: Dreaded gangster Santosh Jha was gunned down inside Sitamarhi court premises by unidentified assailants on Tuesday.

Sources from Sitamarhi informed this newspaper that Santosh Jha was killed outside Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court while he was being taken for hearing in a case related to arms act. He was rushed to a local government hospital where doctors declared him dead.

The police team investigating the case believes that the murder of Santosh Jha could be an outcome of rivalry between two gangs. Police sources also claimed that one assailant was nabbed shortly after the incident while two others managed to escape from the crime scene after spraying several rounds of bullets.

“We have launched a manhunt in and around the district to arrest those who have been involved in the case. The police believe that the killing could have been carried out due to the rivalry between two gangs”, SP Vikas Burman said.

Santosh Jha was serving a life sentence for murdering two engineers of a private road construction company in December 2015.

Santosh Jha along with his other associates had wreaked havoc in Bihar and other neighbouring states before he was arrested in 2016. According to the police, Santosh Jha and other gang members were facing more than 36 cases of extortion and murder in Bihar.

Police sources said Jha was running a gang which was involved in extorting money from various private companies engaged in road and bridge construction projects in Bihar.

Murder of two engineers in December 2015 was carried out by the henchmen of Santosh Jha when the management of the company hired by the state government refused to pay the extortion amount.

The Darbhanga killings had triggered widespread criticism and the BJP which was in opposition in 2015 had raised the issue of deteriorating law and order under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who had formed the government with support from RJD and Congress in Bihar.   

The police sources claim that Santosh Jha had initially joined the Naxal movement in 2002 and was one of the important members of North Bihar regional committee of the CPI (Maoist). However, he left the group a few years later and launched his own gang with the name of Bihar liberation army which carried out criminal activities in Bihar and other neighbouring states.