Brahmeshwar Singh (garlanded), the former chief of the Ranvir Sena, outside the Ara district jail on Friday. Telegraph picture

Patna, July 8: Looking frail and much more than his 65 years, Brahmeshwar Singh alias Mukhiya, former chief of the Ranvir Sena who faces charges of mass killings, today stepped out of jail after spending almost nine years behind bars and asked, “Do I look like a murderer?”

Mukhiya, who was cooling heels in the Ara district jail, faces charges of conspiring to eliminate about 300 people, mostly Dalits, by the Sena, a now-dissolved private army of landlords of central Bihar.

A resident of Khopira village in Bhojpur district, Mukhiya was arrested from Kadamkuan locality in Patna on August 29, 2002, in dramatic fashion. The police then didn’t know what Mukhiya looked like and had depended on a Sena renegade who had betrayed his boss.

Mukhiya’s counsel Vishnudhar Pandey said his client was released from jail after Patna High Court upheld his appeal for bail in the last case registered with the Pauna police station in Bhojpur district under the Arms Act. Though bail was granted to Mukhiya almost a week ago, he was released from jail today after completing the necessary formalities.

A large number of sympathisers of the banned private militia had gathered outside the Ara jail to receive their former chief. They chanted slogans like “Brahmeshwar Mukhiya zindabad” as he stepped out.

Some senior BJP leaders considered close to Mukhiya were spotted moving into Ara town but they preferred not to visit the jail, apparently to avoid embarrassment. Sources said Mukhiya’s supporters escorted him to his native village. His family members and close relatives greeted him with garlands at the jail gate.

Mukhiya, a post-graduate in political science from Patna University, said he had been falsely implicated in all the cases. “I am innocent and had nothing to do with any massacre,” he said.

Though Mukhiya was made accused in 22 cases, he was acquitted in 16 for want of evidence. “Only six cases are pending against Mukhiya in the Ara civil court,” Pandey said. The most important of the six cases pending trial is the Bathani Tola massacre, in which 21 Dalits were butchered by the Sena in 1996.

The trial is being conducted in the court of additional district and sessions judge-I Panchanan Sharma. The statement of the witnesses is being recorded, sources said.

They said the former Sena boss had now been granted bail in all the six cases.

The Sena was allegedly involved in the killing of 61 Dalits at Laxmanpur Bathe village in Jehabanad district on December 1, 1997.