Patna, July 15: If police are to believed, highly controversial Lok Janshakti Party MP from Balia Suraj Bhan Singh has gone missing.

A Patna police team, which left for Delhi on July 7 armed with arrest warrants against the MP, has hit a stonewall in its efforts to nab the politician, whose proximity with Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan has grown by leaps and bounds ever since he joined the LJP.

Patna High Court has already rejected a bail application filed on the MP’s behalf.

Police sources said the team was still camping in Delhi and would continue to do so unless it was able to lay hands on Suraj Bhan. They also pointed out that the team has submitted a request to the Lok Sabha Speaker’s secretary for the MP’s arrest and sought the “active assistance” of Delhi police in this regard.

“The team has made specific requests with the officer in-charge and the deputy commissioner of the Parliament Street area, besides placing a similar request with the officer-in-charge of Chanakyapuri. But the MP has been evading arrest. They are determined not to return to Bihar without Suraj Bhan,” police maintained.

Speculation is rife that the MP might have returned to Bihar but this could not be confirmed. Efforts to contact the politician on his mobile phone proved futile. The team has even searched the premises of ITDC’s Ashoka Hotel, where Suraj Bhan had reportedly put up in room number 506. Besides facing criminal charges, the MP is also believed to have an interest in the lucrative government contracts in Bihar and Jharkhand.

The MP shadowed Paswan at a prominent hotel in Patna on July 1 after chargesheeted MLAs like Munna Shukla and Rajan Tiwari joined the LJP. Suraj Bhan played co-host at a lavish party thrown by Paswan for newspersons at the hotel in the evening.

The immediate case in which warrants have been issued relates to the murder of Umesh Yadav, a local politician of Mokama, in July last year. Suraj Bhan, who was in jail when the murder took place, has been charged with conspiracy under section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code.

A warrant of arrest was issued against the politician in February but he evaded arrest and contested the Lok Sabha election.

Suraj Bhan’s electoral rival Shatrughan Prasad Singh of the CPI had filed a PIL at Patna High Court in this regard.

The court sought an affidavit from the government, which, later suspended the investigating officer and replaced him with the Mokama police station in-charge.

The Supreme Court had recently ordered a probe into the movements of LJP leader Pappu Yadav, who, despite being under arrest, allegedly managed to sneak into Purnea just before the Lok Sabha election.