National

Sun Of The Soil

Suraj Bhan's new claim to fame: he heads the MLA Gang

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Sun Of The Soil
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The bunch of police is more an escort than a ring around him to keep the milling crowd at bay. The crime-lord enters the portals of the assembly with three of his cronies and walks straight to Nitish Kumar’s chamber, shakes his hand and assures him not to worry about the fate of his government.

The till-then chief minister welcomes him with broad smile and says: "Go and take oath." The beaming don enters the House and takes his seat with his band of elected three: Rajan Tiwari, Munna Shukla and Rama Singh. Aware of his rising popularity which can be matched only by his crime graph, he tries to be comfortable in the ambience. However, he takes his oath only the next day, later responding with folded hands to those who greet him.

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Close to him describe Suraj Bhan Singh as a phlegmatic character. But police records credit him with 26 criminal cases ranging across Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Suraj Bhan Singh needs no introduction, especially for those in the cow belt. According to police investigators, he is today the undisputed underworld don of Bihar and UP - no mean achievement in the Hindi heartland. A tall man in his mid-30s, Suraj Bhan has won the election from behind bars along with his associates and since then harboured visions of playing a pivotal role in government formation.

After being elected as the head of 11 independent candidates with criminal backgrounds, leaders of the nda combine as well as the rjd wooed Suraj Bhan in Patna’s Beur Central Jail. Among those who came to enlist his support: Laloo Yadav’s brothers-in-law Sadhu and Subhash and nda leaders Lallan Singh and Raghunath Jha. He played hard-to-get before going with the nda. "I can’t support Laloo as I’ve been elected on an anti-Laloo plank," he justifies. "I can’t go against people’s wishes."

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Suraj Bhan won from Mokama, declared the ‘most sensitive’ of all constituencies in Bihar, defeating aging don Dalip Singh. His personal life is much less colourful. His supporters say Suraj Bhan is a phlegmatic character, married and with a four-year-old schoolgoing child. His family - mother and two schoolgoing brothers - still live in Mokama. Police records credit him with 26 cases - including murder, kidnapping and extortion - ranging from Mokama in Bihar to Gorakhpur in UP, where he bids quite successfully for railway contracts. His gang comprises 300 heavily-armed men, with assault rifles part of their armoury.

Suraj Bhan is said to be instrumental in the killings of UP legislator Virendra Pratap Sahi and Bihar ex-minister Brij Bihari Prasad. He was also close to notorious UP don Sriprakash Shukla, killed in an encounter in 1999. Arrested two years ago from Biharsharif, he’s since been at Beur Jail, calling the shots through several disciples with whom he keeps contact by a daily darbar.

Now that he is mla, education is top priority. "You can do nothing without it," he says. Suraj Bhan hopes to build schools and colleges in his constituency and even make Mokama a "crime-free zone". In the deadly riverine area that he hails from, it is the kind of hope that can only be expressed by one familiar with the ways of underworld.

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