Ranchi, April 23: The Dhanbad district and sessions court today framed charges against urban development minister Bachcha Singh and his accomplices in the murder of trade union leader Sakaldeo Singh and his brother Vinod Singh.

Additional district judge P.C. Choudhary framed the charges in presence of the minister and his associates, who are on bail.

Vinod Singh was gunned down at a busy thoroughfare of Katras in Dhanbad on July 15, 1998. A few months later, on January 25, 1999, his brother Sakaldeo Singh too was murdered on Heerak Road in the coal capital. The double murder was alleged to be the fallout of the protracted rivalry between Bachcha Singh, then a coal contractor, and coal merchant Suresh Singh, who reportedly patronised Sakaldeo Singh.

Apart from Bachcha Singh, his brother Ramadhin Singh, nephew Rajeev Ranjan Singh, Upendra Singh, Munna Singh and Sher Bahadur had also been named in the FIR. The minister is the brother of the late coal mafia don Suraj Deo Singh.

Framing the charges in Fast Track Court 4, Choudhary said Bachcha Singh and his associates had been found guilty of conspiring the murder of the brothers. There is no eyewitness to the murders. However, Upendra Singh and Munna Singh had admitted before the police that Bachcha Singh too played an important role in plotting the killings.