Once a formidable minister who had enough clout to bring down the first BJP government in Jharkhand led by Babulal Marandi, Lalchand Mahto is today a hapless man, struggling to get justice in a fraud case.
The former power minister with shifting political loyalties is waiting for the past five months for Ranchi police to arrest a city-based builder, who allegedly duped his wife Vani Mandal of Rs 6.50 lakh.
The irony is not lost as Mahto is now with the BJP and is believed to have pulled all strings in the party and also the government to get Jitendra Singh arrested, but in vain. No wonder, he feels that justice would have come his way faster had he still been a minister.
The story dates back to a year ago when Singh, who came close to Mahto when he was at the peak of his political career, requested Vani to lend him money to clear some outstanding dues.
Vani relented, lending him Rs 5 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh on two occasions.
But after a while when Mahto demanded the money back, Singh started avoiding him. After a lot of coaxing and convincing, the accused issued him a cheque of Rs 6.50 lakh, but it bounced due to insufficient balance.
When all efforts to get back the sum failed, five months ago, Vani lodged an FIR under Section 420 (cheating) of the IPC against the builder at Lalpur police station.
Despite prima facie and documentary evidence proving the allegations to be true, Lalpur police have failed to track down and arrest Singh. Even Ranchi SP Jaya Roy's order, seeking necessary action, has not yielded any result as yet.
Not ready to reveal much, Mahto said that he called up investigating officer of the case as well as top police officers every alternate day to get the status of the case.
"Everybody rises and falls in life. The moment you are out of power, you are out of people's mind and this is a harsh reality that I am facing now. I request police to act fast and arrest the person who took away my money. I was told that twice raids were carried to arrest Singh, but I don't know the facts," he said.
Asked whether the police would have shown more interest in the case had he been a minister, Mahto, a habitual party-hopper, added: "Time is always the biggest factor."
ASI and investigating officer of the case B.N. Singh claimed that they were doing their bit.
"An order to arrest Jitendra Singh has been issued by Ranchi SP. Charges have been found true. Raids were conducted two times," Singh said.
Mahto, a former JDU MLA who won thrice from Dumri Assembly constituency, was energy minister in the Marandi government in 2000-2003. The two fell out when Marandi, then with the BJP, disagreed with Mahto over award of contracts of the energy department to a few companies that enjoyed favour of the former minister.
Marandi, now the JVM chief, had suspected a big scam in the making. In 2003, Mahto along with all JDU MLAs, withdrew support from the Marandi government.
Marandi was eventually replaced by Arjun Munda as chief minister while Mahto continued to be energy minister.
Later, Mahto left the JDU and joined the RJD.
His fall started with his defeat from Dumri in the 2005 Assembly elections where he contested as an RJD candidate. He also parted ways with RJD and formed a political outfit, Bahujan Sadan Morcha, but failed to resurrect the political ground and the credibility he had lost.
He lost the 2009 Assembly polls as an Independent candidate and finally joined the BJP in 2014. But even a strong BJP wave could not ensure his win from Dumri in the last Assembly elections.
