Ranvir Sena chief Brahmeshwar Singh shot dead, high alert in Bihar

A file photo of former Ranvir Sena chief Brahmeshwar Singh
 Mukhiya who was killed in Arrah, Bihar

Arraha (Bihar), June 1, 2012 - Brahmeshwar Singh, the chief of Bihar's outlawed private militia of landlords Ranvir Sena, was shot dead on Friday by six unidentified gunmen who pumped several bullets into him while he was taking an early morning walk.

Violence broke out in the district headquarter town of Ara in Bhojpur district after the killing of Singh alias 'Mukhiya ji', in his early 70s, and a high alert was sounded in Bihar.

Curfew was clamped in Ara but it was lifted in the afternoon after a high-level review of the situation by senior state officials. The situation in the district was described as tense but under control.

Director-General of Police Abhayanand, who is camping at the spot, was heckled by local people who charged him with failure to provide security to Singh.

Singh, the founder of the Sena, was taking a stroll when six unidentified gunmen armed with sophisticated weapons pumped several bullets into him, killing him on the spot at Katira Mohalla under Nawada police station, 71 kms from Patna, police said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar appealed for calm and said investigations were underway to trace the killers.

Singh, who faced life imprisonment in several cases of carnage he had perpetrated on the lower caste landless poor, including in Laxmanpur Bathe where 61 Dalits were massacred in December, 1996, was acquitted and released from jail in April this year.

As the news of the killing spread, hundreds of Sena supporters gathered at the site of the killing and shouted anti-government slogans.

The Sena men also tried to chase policemen, including the superintendent of police, who had arrived at the spot and later clashed with policemen and burnt five private and government vehicles, sources said.

Hundreds of people took out processions in the district. The private bus operators suspended bus services from Patna causing immense hardships to passengers in the area.

Prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPC would remain in force, sub-divisional police officer Dharmesh Kumar said, adding the situation is tense but under control.

The main opposition parties RJD, Congress and LJP demanded a CBI probe into the killing of Singh.

Nepal supreme Court judge shot dead in capital

KATHMANDU: Gunmen on a motorbike shot and killed a Nepalese Supreme Court judge on Thursday in the capital Kathmandu, sparking fears of lawlessness amid a political vacuum in the Himalayan country.

Judge Rana Bahadur Bam, who was under investigation for corruption, was being driven from a temple early in the day when the gunmen pounced, shooting him six times and injuring two others in the car, doctors and police said.

“He and a security guard were returning from Bagalamukhi temple. A motorbike blocked their way and there was gunfire at 11:08 am,” said Kathmandu police spokesman Rabi Raj Shrestha. “He succumbed to multiple bullet wounds in his armpit. We will interrogate the (judge’s) driver to find out more,” said Shrestha.

The shooting punctured an uneasy peace in the capital, days after Nepal’s Constituent Assembly, which had been considering the case for Bam’s impeachment, disbanded having failed to agree on a new constitution. The killing came as thousands of police patrolled the streets while feuding political factions vie for power in the troubled Himalayan nation, which has no legislature and only a caretaker government ahead of elections in November. “The Nepal government will find the criminal. I urge all Nepalis not to be filled with terror,” caretaker Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai said after visiting the hospital where Bam was taken.

“A high-level meeting of security committee has been called,” Bhattarai told reporters outside the hospital. “We will provide extra security to all the high-level officials including judges.” Bam, a Supreme Court justice for four years, was suspended from hearing cases after being accused of taking bribes in return for giving lenient sentences to criminals. He was under investigation by the Judiciary Council and was due to retire in a year.

Nilama Pandey, a doctor at the Norvick Hospital where Bam was taken, said the 64-year-old had been shot six times and had been pronounced dead soon after being admitted. “He had injuries on his chest. He died after bleeding profusely. Unfortunately, we could not save him,” Pandey told local television. 

His bodyguard and a friend who was also in the car, Ram Giri, the father of popular Nepali comedian Deepak Raj Giri, were also shot but their lives are not in danger, Pandey added.

Bystanders told local television channels the gunshots rung out above the noise of traffic in the morning rush hour. “We were working when we heard a huge noise. There were three of us and we rushed to the scene. Blood had splattered on the road. We didn’t see how the two gunmen arrived but they left on a motorbike,” one said. A pamphlet from a previously unknown group calling itself the Nepal Vad Party was found at the scene, in the Lalitpur district, Shrestha added.

Security analyst Saroj Raj Adhikari told AFP the shooting came at a time of “confusion and uncertainty” in Nepal because of the country’s political crisis. “The murder of the judge shows that no one is safe in the country,” he said. “If the current state continues, I think these groups are likely to commit more serious crimes,” he added. Adhikari said criminal groups which emerged after the end of Nepal’s 1996-2006 civil war were finding it easier than ever to get hold of arms because of inadequate gun controls.

Shootings are still relatively rare in Kathmandu, however, although several public figures have recently been the target of gunmen with various motives and grievances. In September last year, a Muslim community leader was shot dead in the centre of the capital, while five months earlier a Pakistani embassy official was shot in the hand and stomach but survived.