RJD, LJP and Congress legislators protest against poor law and order situation in the state outside the Bihar Assembly in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna/Chhapra, July 21: An FIR was lodged today at Chhapra Town police station in connection with yesterday’s attack on the house of RJD MP from Maharajganj, Umashankar Singh, that left three persons dead.

The deceased were identified as Devendra Singh, Manibhushan Singh and Dinesh Rai. Shashibhushan Singh, brother of Manibhushan, lodged an FIR and named Avinash Rai, Nitesh Rai, Mahesh Rai and Devendra Singh Puttu as the accused in the case.

Though police have launched a manhunt to nab the accused, none of them had been arrested till Thursday evening. “Raids are on and we expect to nab the accused very soon,” Saran range deputy inspector-general (DIG) Sunil Kumar told The Telegraph, adding that three persons, closed to the accused persons, have been taken into custody for interrogation.

He said police teams had been sent to Siwan, Ekma, Rasulpur, Avatarnagar, Garkha and Daudpur to conduct raids.

On the other hand, director-general of police Neel Mani said that the MP was not on the target of the assailants. The MP had stayed at a hotel for a while before leaving for Siswan in Siwan on Wednesday. He had not visited the house yesterday as claimed by him.

“The incident that took place on Wednesday has nothing to do with the MP,” he said, adding that the incident was fallout of family rivalry between the deceased and the accused.Sunil Kumar said: “The first incident resulting out of the family feud had led to the murder of Sanjay Singh, then mukhiya of Mirzapur panchayat, in 2004. He was killed by Rais’ men.”

A year after the incident, three members of the Rai family — Rakesh Rai, Manoj Rai and Rajesh Rai — were killed in an encounter with the Special Task Force. Firearms were recovered from their possession.

He also said though the Singhs were very close to the Maharajganj MP, he was not the target of the assailants. The police official also ruled out the possibility of political rivalry in the case.

Meanwhile, replying to a query of the Opposition in the Assembly on Thursday, chief minister Nitish Kumar said that the police were investigating all aspects of the Chhapra incident.

Responding to the concern shown by the Leader of the Opposition, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Nitish said: “The moment I got the information about the incident, I ordered a thorough probe by the police. When the incident occurred, the MP was not in his residence. The police will find out who was the target of the criminals — the MP or somebody else living in the house and what was the motive.”

He said the MP had been given government security, including a house guard. “The government has taken the case seriously and action will be taken against the guilty,” added the chief minister.