Saturday, September 10 2005 09:42 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Sheikhpura (Bihar): A former Congress Lok Sabha member from Bihar Rajo Singh was gunned down inside the Sheikhpura district Congress office yesterday (Sept 9, 2005) evening by unidentified assailants posing as party workers, police said.

Singh, a former Bihar minister, was on bail in connection with the killing of nine Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) workers, including its Sheikhpura district president Kashi Nath Yadav in 2001. His son Sanjay Singh, a former member in the Rabri Devi ministry, is still lodged in jail in connection with the incident.

Around 7 pm, four persons on two motorcycles reached the Congress office where Singh was talking to some party workers. They asked a man standing at the entrance of the room where Singh was sitting to inform him that some party men wanted to meet him.

As the man got inside, the assailants followed him and sprayed bullets from close range killing him on the spot.

District Magistrate Safina A N told sources that nobody else was injured in the attack.

Police teams were conducting raids to apprehend the killers, she said describing the situation as tense but under control. The DM sought additional police force from adjoining Munger and Lakhisarai districts as also from Patna.

Meanwhile, RJD president and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Bihar Congress chief Sadanand Singh have demanded a high-level probe into the killing of Singh.

''The killing of a popular leader like Singh just before the assembly elections smacks of a conspiracy. The guilty must be brought to book without any delay,'' Lalu said.

Rajo Singh, who first got elected to the Bihar assembly in 1972 from Barbigha, won for six successive terms and was MLA till 1998 when he won the Begusarai Parliamentary seat. He got re-elected from Begusarai in 1999 but was denied nomination in 2004 following his implication in the killing of nine RJD workers.

He was also an accused in the multi-crore Rupees fodder scam along with Lalu Prasad and former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra.

Singh had the distinction of never losing any assembly or parliamentary election he fought.

Meanwhile, Congress workers in the district sat on a dharna protesting against the 'lackadaisical' attitude of the district administration.

They alleged that even two hours after the killing, no senior district official visited the spot though the information had been given to the district magistrate's residence.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Signh and former state Congress president Rajatan Sinha are expected to visit Sheikhpura today (Sept 10, 2005).