The days of Mohammed Shahabuddin and his contemporaries appear to be over in Bihar. Now, a new don has emerged to personify organised crime in the state.

The gruesome killing of two engineers engaged in a road construction project in Darbhanga district on Saturday has brought the dreaded gang-lord Santosh Jha into sharp focus.

The police probe into the double murder case has revealed that the engineers, Mukesh Singh and Brajesh Kumar Singh, were killed by the sharpshooters of the Santosh Jha gang for not meeting their extortion demand of Rs 1 crore.

The murder of two engineers in Darbhanga has put the spotlight on gangster Santosh Jha

Santosh is at present lodged in Gaya central jail in connection with about 40 criminal cases, including murder, landmine blasts and extortion.

He is said to be running his gang to extort money, primarily from different private agencies engaged in the multi-crore road and bridge construction projects in north Bihar.

According to police sources, his gang is estimated to have minted not less than Rs 100 crore through its illegal operations in the past few years.

Darbhanga SSP S K Satyarthi said that the names of Santosh gang members had cropped up in connection with the engineers’ killing.

The police investigators have also found out that the killings of the two engineers were executed by Mukesh Pathak, a sharpshooter of Santosh’s gang, and three of his accomplices.

Carrying AK-47s, the four motorcycle-borne criminals had fired indiscriminately on the engineers near their base camp in Baheri block of Darbhanga district.

A leaflet, understood to have been left behind the assailants on the spot, gave a clue about the involvement of Pathak.

Pathak, who was lodged in the prison like his mentor Santosh until July this year, had escaped from Sheohar hospital while undergoing treatment there.

In a dramatic fashion, he had served biscuits laced with sedatives to the police personnel deployed to guard him before escaping.

Since then he is said to be leading his gang’s operations, allegedly at Santosh’s behest.

According to police sources, 42-year-old Santosh had entered the world of crime in 2002. He had initially joined the Naxal movement and was a leading member of the North Bihar regional committee of the CPI (Maoist).

However, he left the organisation later and launched his own gang called the Bihar Liberation Army to carry out his criminal activities.

Nitish Kumar acts tough to curb crime

By Giridhar Jha

Nitish Kumar has directed Bihar's state police to contain crime at any cost

Alarmed over the rising crime graph in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday directed the state police to contain crime at any cost and take the killing of the two engineers in Darbhanga district as a challenge.

Expressing grave concern over the recent criminal activities, he told the top brass of the state police in no uncertain terms that such incidents would not be tolerated.

Holding a review meeting of the home department, he impressed upon the senior police officials the need to check organised crime and crush the morale of the criminals across the state.

Underlining his government’s commitment towards establishment of the rule of the law, he said that the police must take the recent incidents as a challenge.

“No matter how big a criminal is, he should not be spared,” he said.