The Bihar Police on Saturday arrested Janata Dal (United)’s Mokama candidate Anant Singh in connection with the killing of a Jan Suraaj worker after a clash between alleged supporters of the two parties earlier this week.

The worker, Dularchand Yadav, was found dead inside a vehicle in Tartar village of Bihar’s Patna district on Thursday.

The area is part of the Mokama Assembly constituency, which goes to polls on November 6.

The state is under the model code of conduct, with Assembly elections scheduled for November 6 and November 11. The counting of votes will take place on November 14.

Along with Singh, the police on Saturday stated that they had also arrested two other persons – Manikant Thakur and Ranjeet Ram.

During a press conference, Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Kartikeya Sharma stated that all three accused persons were present at the site when the clash took place and would be produced before the magistrate.

Sharma added that Yadav’s post-mortem report showed he died of cardiorespiratory failure due to shock caused by injury to the heart and lungs by a hard and blunt substance, reported PTI.

“Therefore, the post-mortem report and preliminary investigation suggest that it’s a case of murder,” the police officer was quoted as saying by the news agency.

According to Sharma, four first information reports were registered in connection with the clashes, including one pertaining to the violation of the model code of conduct.

Jan Suraaj’s Mokama candidate Priyadarshi Piyush had told the police on Thursday that he was on his way for election campaigning when he encountered the JD(U)’s convoy between Tartar and Basavanchak villages.

Piyush said that “as the two convoys came face to face, an altercation broke out, followed by stone throwing and physical assault”.

Singh had said that he and his supporters were meeting voters when the Jan Suraaj convoy allegedly began shouting slogans against them.

“I told my supporters not to respond, and we moved away,” said Singh. “Some of my vehicles were behind us… [Rival convoy] started attacking our vehicles. I moved ahead with about 30 vehicles behind me and they attacked 10 of the vehicles at the rear. My supporters’ vehicles were vandalised.”

EC directs transfer of Patna Rural SP

Meanwhile, the Election Commission on Saturday ordered the transfer of Patna Superintendent of Police (Rural) Vikram Sihag in connection with the clashes in Mokama, reported PTI.

The poll panel also ordered the appointment of new officials to replace the sub-divisional officer of Barh, Chandan Kumar, who is also the returning officer of the Mokama Assembly seat.

The sub-divisional police officer Barh-1, Rakesh Kumar, and sub-divisional police officer Barh-2, Abhishek Singh, have also been transferred, reported The Hindu.

The poll panel has ordered for Abhishek Singh to be suspended.

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