Serving mukhia held in 1988 kidnap case

Over a period of 15 years after he was declared absconding in a criminal case, a man contested a Lok Sabha poll and two assembly elections, before ending up as the mukhia of a village panchayat in north Bihar.

This is the story of Dalan Prasad Yadav, mukhia of Sonvarsha panchayat in Saran district of north Bihar, whose luck finally ran out when he was arrested on Saturday in connection with a 1988 Lohardagga (now Jharkand) case.

Yadav was arrested from Nandpur village under Manjhi police station of north Bihar’s Saran district on the charge of kidnapping two tribal minor girls from Lohardagga district on January 21, 1988.

Declared an absconder in the case by a Lohadagga court on October 29, 1998, Yadav contested the Lok Sabha election as an independent from Chapra once, assembly polls twice and mukhia’s election thrice, as an absconder.

“Yadav won the election of mukhia twice, even though he was on the police’s wanted list. Although an absconder, he used to participate in meetings convened by the district magistrate and SP, regularly”, said an official.

Yadav even went on to head the Saran district mukhias’ association, he added.

An embarrassed police machinery now wants to get to the bottom of the how Yadav managed to pursue high profile politics while remaining on the ‘wanted’ list of the police.

“We have instituted an inquiry to ascertain how Yadav managed to evade the law for so many years and who all helped him do so”, Tirhut range inspector general of police Pankaj Darad told HT on Sunday.

Police sources said Tarwan Oraon and Mangra Oraon of Navdiha village under Bhandara police station of Lohadagga had lodged a case against Yadav, accusing him of abducting their 10-year-old daughters.

During investigation, the police found the allegation against Yadav and four others to be true and a charge-sheet was submitted against him. Later, a court had issued arrest warrant against Yadav.

When he did not appear before the court, it finally declared Yadav an absconder on October 29, 1998. Since then, the police have been on a ‘look out’ for him.

The police are now interrogating Yadav about his role in the kidnapping and to find out how he managed to evade arrest for 15 years.