Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's zero crime tolerance and 'sushashan' claims have gone for a toss with serious criminal charges being levelled against Janata Dal-United (JD-U) MLA Anant Singh. The Patna police has arrested five criminals who allegedly claimed to be acting on Singh's behest.

What is more shocking is that the state government issued transfer order of Patna Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Jitendra Rana moments after he led a team to arrest the criminals.

During a press conference on Tuesday night, Rana said that the criminals responsible for the abduction of four men from Barh area on June 17, told the police during interrogation that they were acting under the order of Anant Singh, an MLA from Barh - 90 kms east of Patna.

While Singh has denied his role in the abduction case, his party JD-U has also backed its leader. Party spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad told India Today TV that charges levelled against Anant Singh are false and baseless.

"I am not aware of the incident. I don't know what has happened. I don't know any of the men arrested by Patna police. I am being framed by the SSP as he has some personal enmity against me," Anant Singh said.

"Police should complete the investigation in the case. You will find that all allegations against are false and baseless when police investigation is completed. There is a rule of law in the state and nobody will be allowed to play with that," Prasad said.

Anant Singh, notorious for running a parallel administration in his constituency, contradicts everything that Nitish Kumar's model of good governance stands for. He has hardly been reined in by the Nitish government.

A controversial figure in Bihar politics, Anant Singh made news a few years ago for allegedly brandishing an AK-47 at a public function. The three-term MLA, named as an accused in a number of criminal cases over the years, had also been charged of land grabbing in Patna.