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Court A Bihar fast track court in its judgment pronounced on Tuesday, have held Controversial Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MP from Balia Suraj Singh alias Surajbhan Singh with two others guilty of murdering a farmer named Rami Singh over a land dispute 16 years ago. Surajbhan Singh represents Bihar’s Balia constituency in parliament and is considered to be very close the Union Minister of Steel and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan.

 Incident Rami Singh, a resident of Mathurapur village in Begusarai district was shot on Jan 16, 1992 allegedly by Surajbhan Singh and his henchmen to avenge the killing of an associate Ramadhar Singh in a land dispute, according to the police complaint in the case. While an accused Pappu Singh had sought a separate trial, two others-Suro Singh and Shankar Singh- also convicted in the same case had been killed in an encounter before the case could go to trial. The fast court judge R P Dubey convicted MP Surajbhan Singh, Jaijairam Singh and Radha Singh. The quantum of sentence will be announced on Wednesday.

Related Facts It may also be recalled that Begusarai public prosecutor Ram Naresh Sharma who was earlier handling the same case was shot dead in his house in Begusarai on November 8, 2007.Hundereds of people, mostly supporters of Surajbhan Singh, had gathered outside the court since early afternoon to hear the court’s verdict that was announced amid tight security. Surajbhan Singh is accused in several criminal cases, including those of murder, extortion, kidnapping and looting. Soon after the court found him along with the two other convicts, police took them into custody, were handcuffed and sent to jail under judicial custody.

Criminalization of Politics In the last two months the judiciary has pronounced some judgments in which most politicians or their relatives were convicted .There is only the judiciary left in which people have some belief. Though some political parties have taken steps to stop the criminalization of the politics by not allowing the criminals to contest in the elections on the party tickets but that is not enough. Some concrete steps are needed to purge and purify all the political system from the criminal impurities. Courts are the last option to deal with the criminals it is the duty of the people and the political parties to disallow the criminal elements from entering into the political circles.