Bindu Singh with his bodyguards. Telegraph picture

Patna, Jan. 22: Police officers posted at the Beur Central Jail are on the hitlist of notorious gangsters operating in Patna. The startling fact came to light after the Patna police arrested a sharpshooter of an incarcerated ganglord Bindu Singh from the jail premises on Saturday.

Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Jehanabad, was arrested when he and his associate Rishi went to meet Bindu Singh in jail. Sanjeev wanted to meet his mentor before proceeding on his mission — to eliminate assistant jailor Ashok Kumar Singh.

Bindu had allegedly threatened jailor Anand Kumar Sinha and assistant jailor Singh with dire consequences. “Bindu, who is facing charges of murder, attempt to murder and extortion, hatched a conspiracy to eliminate the assistant jailor,” said a senior police officer.

The assistant jailor was allegedly on Bindu’s target ever since the jail warders “assaulted” the notorious gangster on January 20. Bindu had barged into the jailor’s office and allegedly misbehaved with him after the latter refused to oblige the former. The prison authorities raised an alarm and subsequently used force to bring the situation under control.

The security around the Beur jail has been beefed up in the wake of the arrest on the premises. “The jail officers live under constant threat as they have to deal with notorious criminals on one hand and hardcore Maoists on the other,” said superintendent of jail Om Prakash Gupta. At present, around 2,500 prisoners are lodged in the jail.

Gupta told The Telegraph that most of the jail officers return home late in the evening after finishing their duty.

There is a constant fear of them getting targeted by criminal on their way to home, the superintendent said, adding that tough action against the incarcerated gangster is believed to be the reason behind the elimination conspiracy.

Gupta said that jail authorities had recommended the district administration to block the road passing through the jail as a precautionary measure.

“But no decision has been taken so far even after repeated reminders,” Gupta said, adding that multi-storey buildings have come up in the vicinity of the jail, which are posing serious threats to the jail security.

Bindu’s terror can be gauged from the fact that he had made an abortive bid on the life of former inspector general (Prison) Harjot Kaur when she had gone to the Bhagalpur Central Jail for inspection. A kitchen knife was seized from the possession of Bindu, a deserter of the Central Industrial Security Force, a senior prison department officer recalled.

Sources said that the then jailor of Beur Jail Nagendra Kumar Singh was killed by armed criminals near Nala Road in Patna while he was returning home from the jail a few years ago.

Bindu’s name once spelt terror in Patna and its adjoining areas. Owners of private coaching institutes and medical practitioners were the soft target of Bindu, who used to extort money from them before Nitish Kumar came to power in November 2005.

Bindu, resident of Mokar Daulatpur under Karauna police station in Jehanabad district, is facing trail in over a dozen cases of murder, attempt to murder and extortion in Bihar and Jharkhand. Several coaching institutes, including those of national repute, winded up their business from Bihar due to Bindu’s terror.

Police had also arrested Bindu’s wife and daughter in 2004 and sent them to jail in connection with an extortion case when Kundan Krishnan was the senior superintendent of police, Patna.