Umashankar Singh

July 20: Three persons, including a mukhiya (village head), were killed this afternoon when a group of armed criminals opened fire at the house of RJD MP from Maharajganj Umashankar Singh in Saran district. The MP was not at his newly purchased home at Sadhnapuri in Chhapra town during the attack.

Five motorcycle-borne criminals raided the double-storeyed house of the MP around 3.15pm and opened fire indiscriminately. Three persons, including Devendra Singh (mukhiya), Manibhushan Singh (a contractor) and Dinesh Rai (the driver of the contractor), were killed on the spot. Two persons, Chandrashekhar and Manjeet, survived the attack as they hid under a bed.

The assailants were equipped with AK-47 assault rifles and other sophisticated weapons, eyewitnesses said. The indiscriminate firing created panic among the residents, who ran helter-skelter for safety. The assailants escaped unhurt, the residents told the police.

Additional director-general of police (headquarters) Rajvardhan Sharma said: “The police are probing the incident from all angles.” Deputy inspector-general (DIG) of Saran range Sunil Kumar and Saran superintendent of police A.K. Satyarthi were camping at the site.

Sharma said the MP had been provided with four carbine-wielding bodyguards. In addition, four securitymen and an officer have been deputed as house guards in view of security threat to the MP, he added.

The police said the MP had recently purchased a floor of the two-storeyed house where people close to him and those belonging to his constituency used to stay while visiting the district collectorate and the civil court.

One Pappu Singh bought another floor of the building. “The police interrogated Pappu,” deputy inspector-general (Saran range) Sunil Kumar told The Telegraph.

The DIG said efforts were on to ascertain the identity of the criminals involved in the daylight killings.

“The borders of the district have been sealed and operation launched to arrest the killers,” he said.

The MP said the incident might be a fallout of political rivalry.

“The involvement of the Maoists in the incident cannot be ruled out as the contractor was on the hit list of the Maoists,” he said.

Singh said he was in Siwan when he received the information about the firing. “I am on way to Chhapra from Siwan,” he told The Telegraph over phone.