Life term to CPI men for murder

begusarai: cpi leader and aituc state secretary chandeshwari singh along with other party activists, ram shankar singh alias lallan singh, umesh singh, debo poddar, siyaram singh, bundho singh, shankar shah, ashok singh and ballu jha were on wednesday awarded life imprisonment for killing one of their political rival ashok singh’s father, surya shekhar singh, by a fast track court here.one of the convicts, umesh singh, however, was killed in mysterious circumstances by armed gunmen in 1986. according to the prosecution, the aituc state secretary, along with his men, killed surya shekhar singh in the bihat village on septemebr 22, 1979. the victim happened to be the father of ashok singh, an accused in the case of killing of cpi mla from matihani, sita ram mishra, in 1978. surya shekhar was murdered at his residence at gurudaspur tola in bihat. bihat is known as a communist stronghold. incidentally, this is for the second time that cpi leaders have been sentenced for political killings in the district. earlier, a congress worker, annu singh, was murdered allegedly by cpi’s armed activists in 1969. one of the wednesday’s convicts, chandeshwari singh, also happens to be a member of the district board from birpur. he is also the vice-president of aituc-affiliated barauni telshodhak mazdoor union (btmu). singh is an “absconder� in yet another criminal case of attempt to murder and explosive substance act, lodged in the barauni police station in 1981. however, he used to move freely and was also provided a security guard by the district administration. akhileshwar prasad singh and chandrakant singh of the patna high court appeared on behalf of the defence whereas ram naresh sharma appeared from prosecution side.