Tuesday’s arrest of Sanjay Singh, a suspected gangster and chief of the outlawed Pandav Sena, as soon as an higher caste paramilitary group in Bihar, was a serious breakthrough for the state police.
The event is important not solely due to Mr. Singh’s function within the violent caste conflicts that roiled central Bihar within the Nineteen Nineties, but in addition as a result of investigators say he later remodeled into an organized interstate crime syndicate. He faces greater than 25 felony instances, in keeping with police data.
Singh’s trajectory displays the transition from ideologically-based agrarian violence to organized crime in elements of Bihar.
Singh, a resident of Nima village beneath Masauli police station in Patna district, has been on the radar of legislation enforcement companies because the mid-Nineteen Nineties.
pandav sena
Within the Nineteen Nineties, central Bihar skilled a long-running violent battle between left-wing Naxalite teams, together with the Maoist Communist Heart (later merged with CPI-Maoist), and personal militias supported by some land-owning higher caste teams. One of the distinguished of those was Ranvir Sena, based by Brahmeshwar Mukhiya, who was murdered in 2012.
Police stated Singh was initially related to the Ranbir Sena however defected in 1995 to type the Pandav Sena with Chitranjan Sharma.
The Pandav Sena emerged as an area paramilitary group that sought to counter Naxalite affect and defend the pursuits of landowners. The group was lively in elements of Patna, particularly Masauli and Danalur, in addition to Jehanabad, Alwar, and elements of Gaya, Nalanda, and Bhagalpur.
A police officer who investigated a few of Singh’s instances informed The Indian Specific: “In contrast to conventional village protection teams, Singh has expanded the operational capabilities of his power. The gang has amassed subtle weapons equivalent to AK-47 assault rifles and has enabled it to function throughout a number of districts.”
Sharma later entered politics and was elected as a BJP MLA from Alwar seat in 2010. He handed away final 12 months on the age of 51 after a protracted battle with sickness.
Militias and arranged crime
Police say Singh regularly turned the Pandav Sena right into a felony community working throughout Bihar and neighboring Jharkhand state, as state motion and altering political situations weakened personal militias.
Investigators stated the syndicate had expanded its unlawful sand mining operations and managed sand ghats alongside the Sone River in Patna, Bhojpur and Saran districts. Police stated his gang allegedly extorted cash from sand-laden boats after which “diversified” into land theft, extortion and contract killings, focusing on contractors, builders and enterprise house owners.
incident, battle
Singh has been named in at the very least 26 felony instances registered in Bihar and Jharkhand, stated Bihar Particular Job Power (STF) Director Common (Operations) Kundan Krishnan. These embrace homicide, kidnapping for ransom, acts involving homicide, offenses beneath the Arms Act, and provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
An necessary chapter in Singh’s felony profession concerned a falling out with former colleague Chitranjan Sharma. Police stated the dispute, initially associated to regulate of territory and operations, escalated right into a long-running gang battle.
In April 2020, Singh survived an assault close to Nadwan railway station and accused the Sharma faction of orchestrating the assault. In Could 2022, Singh’s shut aide Sudhir Sharma was crushed to loss of life, additional escalating the battle.
Investigators say Singh then deliberate a sequence of retaliatory assaults. In April 2022, Sharma’s uncle, hotelier Abhiram Sharma, was shot lifeless at his residence in Jehanabad, and his nephew Dinesh was additionally killed close to Mauli. The following day, Sharma’s brothers Gautam and Shambhu Singh had been shot lifeless on a freeway in Patna district.
arrest
After the 2022 killing, Singh was arrested by the STF in Ranchi. He then secured bail in 2024.
Police stated Singh went underground once more in August 2025 after the STF raided an alleged sand mining camp in Bhihta, arresting 14 of his associates and seizing AK-47 rifles, different firearms and greater than 100 rounds of dwell ammunition.
After being on the run for practically a 12 months, Singh was arrested by the Bihar STF at Patna Junction station on Tuesday after arriving by prepare from Delhi, police stated.
