Engineers’ murder case: Ten awarded life imprisonment in Darbhanga

PATNA: Notorious gangsters Santosh Jha and Mukesh Pathak, who were running one of the most dreaded criminal gang in Bihar until two years back, were awarded rigorous life imprisonment by a court in Darbhanga on Wednesday for their involvement in double murder of engineers Brajesh Kumar Singh and Mukesh Kumar Singh which took place at Benipur in the district on December 26, 2015.
Along with the two gangsters, their eight other associates were also awarded life imprisonment by the court of ADJ-V Rupesh Deo for involvement in the double murder.The eight other convicts are Vikash Jha, Nikesh Dubey, Abhishek Jha, Sanjay Lal Dev, Pintu Lal Dev and Munni Devi.
The court had held them guilty in the murder case on February 26 this year. Santosh, Mukesh, Vikash, Nikesh, Abhishekh and Sanjay were also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 of them while rest four were fined Rs 15,000 each by the court.
The court had released Anchal Jha, Tuna Jha, Subodh Dubey and Rishi Jha in the case due to lack of evidences against them.
The engineers Brajesh and Mukesh were employed with a road construction company. They were shot dead near Shivram village in Benipur subdivision of Darbhanga district after their construction firm had not paid extortion demanded by the gang led by Santosh Jha.
While Santosh was in jail at the time of crime, Mukesh was handling the gang and had played a key role in the double murder.
The Special Task Force (STF) of Bihar police had arrested Mukesh from a train at Ramgarh in Jharkhand on June 11, 2016. More than 30 cases of extortion and murder are lodged against the gang member across Bihar.
The gang was once epitome of terror for businessmen and construction firms engaged in large scale constructions across Bihar. The gang members even processed sophisticated weapons like AK-47. One such rifle was used in killing of the two engineers.