BHOPAL: The husband of BSP MLA Ram Bai, Govind Singh Parihar, was arrested on a tip-off by a special task force (STF) of Gwalior police and district police, Gwalior, from the Bhind bus stand on Sunday morning, the ADG, STF, Vipin Maheshwari, informed Free Press. The accused is wanted in the Devendra Chaurasia murder case. He was presented in the Hatta court and the court sent him to police remand for two days, said SP, Damoh, Hemant Chouhan.
The action came after instructions issued by the Supreme Court to arrest the accused. The son of the deceased, Somesh Chaurasia, had filed a case in the Supreme Court seeking the arrest of Govind Singh and other accused in the case.
Earlier, a message went viral on social media in which Govind Singh claimed that he was going to surrender to the police and also a message from Ram Bai that her husband had surrendered to the police.
BSP MLA Ram Bai |
What was the case?
Fifty-year-old Congress leader Devendra Chaurasia was murdered on March 15, 2019, in Hatta town of Damoh district for quitting the BSP to join the then ruling Congress. The accused included Patharia BSP MLA Rambai Thakur’s husband, Govind Singh alias Rabbi, brother, Lokesh Patel, brother-in-law, Chandu Singh, nephew, Golu Singh, and former Damoh district panchayat chairperson Shivcharan Patel’s son, Indrapal.
Crime-ridden past
This is not the first time that the Patharia BSP MLA’s husband has been accused in a criminal case. He was accused in at least 28 criminal cases even in the past. He was convicted and awarded life imprisonment in three murder cases, including a 1998 murder case and two murder cases of 2005, which included a double murder. He is out on bail in all these murder cases after challenging the trial court verdict in the high court.
Judges apprehensive
Earlier, the judge hearing the case in Hatta had apprehended that anything untoward could happen to him. The additional district judge conducting the trial in the case has observed in the latest order in the case that the Damoh district police superintendent, along with his subordinates, were putting pressure on him. This judge, too, is apprehensive that anything untoward could happen with him in future.
