Dreaded gangster Santosh Jha was shot dead by unidentified assailants in a court premises in Bihar’s Sitamarhi district on Tuesday.
Jha was on his way to being produced in a court of chief judicial magistrate Saroj Sinha in connection with an Arms Act case. A policeman was walking behind him when he was shot at by the unidentified gunman. A court employee also sustained injuries in the shootout.
Jha was serving a life sentence for the murder of two engineers, Brajesh Kumar and Mukesh Kumar, who were working for a private road construction company in December 2015, when the company refused to cough up “extortion money”.
He was arrested in June 2016 and was convicted by a Darbhanga court in March this year. A source said Jha and his associates were a dreaded name in the Mithilanchal, Bihar and had many cases of murder, kidnapping and extortion pending against them. He added that Jha also had links with Left Wing Extremists before he built his own gang.Vikas Burman, superintendent of police, said, “One person has been arrested for interrogation and a loaded pistol has been seized from him.”
