BJP MLA Asha Sinha. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, July 10: The arrest of seven persons accused in the daylight murder of a Garikhana resident in Patna on Saturday from the vehicle of the BJP MLA from Danapur, Asha Sinha, and the police probe into her role in the killing hint at renewed nexus between politicians and criminals.

Three motorcycle-borne criminals killed Harish Paswan yesterday. The police launched investigation into the role of the MLA after Uma Devi, the mother of the deceased, told the cops today that some armed persons had visited her home at Garikhana a day before the incident in the same vehicle and threatened her son with dire consequences.

“Sub kuchh vidhayika ke ishare pad hua hai (everything has been done on the MLA’s instructions),” she alleged.

Uma said her son was asked not to oppose the MLA and work for her. “Biltu Gope, a councillor of Khagaul, had warned to eliminate my son for opposing the MLA,” she alleged in a petition submitted to the police. Uma had not mentioned the MLA’s name in the FIR lodged on Saturday.

A few hours after Harish was murdered, Khagaul police seized a Scorpio of the legislator in which nine criminals, including seven named accused in the murder, were travelling. Two countrymade pistols, a foreign-made pistol, 12 rounds of ammunition, Rs 35,000 and eight cellphones were also seized.

The arrested persons have been identified as Arvind Paswan, Hullar Paswan, Rajesh Rai alias Biltu Gope, Ananjay Kumar, Amit Kumar, Satish Kumar, Deepak alias Teni, Vikas Kumar and the driver of the MLA, Birendra Kumar.

Arvind and Hullar, notorious criminals facing charges of murder, loot and dacoity, told the police during interrogation that Deepak alias Teni had taken supari (contract) from Biltu to kill Harish. Biltu had promised Teni Rs 50,000 for the murder of Harish, the two assailants disclosed.

Harish had developed intimacy with Hullar when the former was serving sentence in a murder case in Beur Central jail.

IPS probationer Harpreet Kaur, deputed as station house officer of Khagaul police station at present, said it was being probed whether Birendra had taken the vehicle with the MLA’s consent or he did it at his own.

“But it is a fact that the MLA’s vehicle was used for transporting the criminals,” she added.

The MLA denied her involvement in the murder case. She told The Telegraph: “I had to attend a wedding ceremony at Khagaul on Saturday evening. When I went inside my house at Sarari to get ready for the function, the driver told me that he would be back within five minutes. I thought he was going either to a tea stall or a betel shop at the railway crossing. Within a few minutes I got the shocking news of the arrest of my driver with some persons with firearms.”

The MLA said: “As I had to set out for attending the wedding ceremony, I had left my diary, spectacles and the documents of other vehicles (tractors) in the vehicle. Had my intentions been wrong, I would not have left my personal belongings in the vehicle,” she said.

Sinha said she was not even aware of any murder. “I came to know about the murder only when I received information about the arrest of my driver and the criminals allegedly involved in the murder case,” she said, adding that she was being implicated in the case out of political vendetta.

The MLA of the ruling coalition said she had employed Birendra (the arrested driver), a resident of Sarari, only a month back.

The MLA’s husband, Satya Narayan Sinha, was killed by armed criminals at Jamaluddin Chak on April 30, 2004, the day RJD boss Lalu Prasad had organised the “Lathi Ghumawan, Tel Pilawan” rally at the historic Gandhi Maidan. He was killed in front of the house of a relative of Lalu.

A notorious criminal of Khagaul-Danapur area Ritlal Yadav was made a named accused in the Satya Narayan Sinha murder case. Yadav, who unsuccessfully contested the last Assembly elections from Danapur as an Independent, is facing trial in the case.