Loaded AK-47 rifle seized from Bihar legislator’s house

A loaded AK-47 was recovered by Patna police from the ancestral house of on Friday during a raid that also threw up live cartridges and explosives.

On a tip-off, a police team raided the house of Anant Kumar Singh, independent MLA from Mokama who was earlier with the Janata Dal (United), in Ladma village in Barh sub-division of rural Patna. A bomb disposal squad was summoned to defuse hand grenades found in the house.

Rural SP Kantesh Kumar Mishra said the raids were conducted on specific intelligence inputs that illegal arms and ammunition were stored at the MLA’s house. The entire operation was video-graphed in the presence of the caretaker of the house and a magistrate.

Singh’s specially designed two-storey house is said to have a tunnel where criminals, armed with weapons and ammunition, would frequently took shelter. The tunnel apparently leads to a pond.

The police said the AK 47 rifle had a carbon covering to prevent detection by metal detectors.

“AK 47, 26 live bullets, magazines and explosives -- these are generally recovered from terrorists or Maoists. Finding them at a public servant’s house is very surprising,” a state home department official said.

“We are trying to establish where the weapons were procured from. A case will be lodged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and handed over to the NIA,” an official said.

The MLA, who was not home at the time of the raid, alleged he was being targeted out of political vendetta.