Patna, July 18: A prime accused in the 1997 Laxmanpur Bathe massacre, in which 58 people from the Scheduled Castes were killed by Ranvir Sena members, was arrested from Patna today.

Dharma Singh alias Murari Sharma of Kamta village under the jurisdiction of Parasi police station in Arwal district was carrying a reward of Rs 3 lakh on his head. He had escaped from court premises in Patna in 2000 when a special court was about to deliver judgment in the case.

Arwal superintendent of police Anand Kumar said a special team was constituted to apprehend Sharma, who had been evading arrest for 13 years now. Sharma had slipped from the police dragnet in Arwal. Today, the team caught him in an area falling under the jurisdiction of Paliganj police station.

Sharma was produced before the chief judicial magistrate in Jehanabad, who remanded him in judicial custody for two weeks. The Ranvir Sena was a private army of landowners which the Bihar government banned in 1995.