Maya welcomes another tainted MLA

Three others,accused in the case,including his brother Yashbhadra Singh alias Monu Singh,are still behind bars.

Chandra Bhadra resigned from the Assembly and joined the BSP in the presence of Public Works Department Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Lalji Verma.

Siddiqui said Chandra Bhadra has expressed his faith in the BSP’s policy and was “impressed by behanji’s style of functioning”. “I joined the BSP because I like the agenda and policies of the party,” Chandra Bhadra said,adding that Siddiqui had asked him to join the party.

Harendra Pratap Singh,officer in-charge of Kurebhar police station in Sultanpur,confirmed his unit has a crime dossier on Chandra Bhadra,including cases of assault,extortion and threatening.

Chandra Bhadra,however,said the cases against him were false. “The NSA was invoked against me in 2008 but was quashed by the Allahabad High Court. I have been framed in the Gyaneshwar murder case,” he added .

He is considered close to BSP MP from Jaunpur,Dhananjay Singh,also a historysheeter.

Gyaneshwar was shot dead with seven followers in Handia police station area of Allahabad by armed men. The investigation was entrusted to Crime Branch-CID,which named Chandra Bhadra and three others in the case. On May 26,2007,a CB-CID team,along with Sultanpur police,arrested him from the MLAs’ flats in the Hazratganj area.

The police believe Gyaneshwar’s murder was the result of a vendetta since he had allegedly killed Chandra Bhadra Singh’s father Indra Bhadra Singh over a land dispute in 1999.