Accused of Pre-Republic Day Ara Court Bomb Blast Arrested

A team of Special Cell led by Inspectors Lalit Mohan Negi, Hriday Bhushan and Chandrika Prasad has arrested Sachidanand Sharma @ Lambu Sharma @ Munna Sharma, aged 25 yrs, s/o Samahul Sharma @ Nand Kishore Sharma, r/o Village Piro, Gandhi Chowk, District Ara Bhojpur, Bihar, a most wanted criminal and the chief architect-accused of the sensational bomb blast which happened in Ara District court on 23^rd January 2015, just before the Republic Day celebrations which had sent the police and security forces into a massive man hunt of this don apart from alarming the central as well as state intelligence agencies as the don had known Maoist links.

Lambu Sharma, the prisoner who had executed his escape from police custody after the Ara civil court blast on 23^rd January 2015, is a notorious criminal accused in cases of murder, bomb blast and Arms Act filed with the Piro, Town, Barhara and other police stations in Bhojpur district, Bihar. He had earlier also twice escaped from police custody.In the 23^rd January 2015 bomb blast, two persons were killed including a police constable Amit Kumar and 16 others were injured.  According to eye witnesses, a woman was seen talking on phone and when the prisoner van arrived she started to walk towards the van while still talking on her phone. The blast occurred when a police constable tried to stop her.Taking advantage of the ruckus created by the blast, two prisoners namely Lambu Sharma and Akhilesh Upadhyaya had fled from the court premises. Subsequently, in March 2015, Akhilesh was apprehended but Lambu Sharma remained absconding.

Later, the deceased woman was identified as Ms Nageena Devi, a resident of Ballia District in Uttar Pradesh. She had come to Ara from her native place on 21^st January 2015. A married lady, her husband was found to be a mentally deranged person and she had a live-in relationship with Lambu Sharma.

This team of the Special Cell, which specializes in Anti-Terrorist and Inter-State gangster operations, was working on some Maoist links when the name of Lambu Sharma had appeared on its radar as the protégé of one Bharat Saxena (since killed in an accidental IED blast), a known Maoist and expert in bomb making. The escape of this criminal after the sensational 23^rd January court bombing had prompted this team into deploying sources to develop intelligence about this absconding gangster. After sustained efforts, on 23^rd June 2015 i.e. exactly after five months of the incident, information was received that Lambu Sharma would be arriving at the Maharana Pratap ISBT, near Tis Hazari in late evening hours to meet a contact. This input was immediately acted upon and a strong team was positioned to apprehend this criminal and close to midnight hours, Lambu Sharma was apprehended in a swift, professional operation.

Accused Lambu Sharma has been arrested u/s. 41.1 of Cr PC and the Bihar Police has been informed of his arrest.

Profile of accused Lambu Sharma:

Accused Lambu Sharma was born in the year 1992 at his native place in Ara, Bihar. His father was a carpenter and used to support his family by making/selling wooden furniture. After studying till 7^th Standard from Kanya Madhya Vidyalaya, Lohiya Chowk, Piro, Bihar, he went to Ludhiana, Punjab along with one of his village neighborin search of work and joined one P.S.S. Company as a casual worker. The company was engaged in the work of producing pump sets used in agriculture. He stayed in Ludhiana for about 4 years.

2004 -First Murder:

During one of the annual visits to his hometown, Lambu had developed intimate relations with a young lady of his village. This lady was also in a relationship with one Dhannu Singh, r/o Mohan Tola, PS Pero, Bhojpur Ara. Lambu Sharma had grudges against this Dhannu and during a scuffle between the Lambu Sharma group (which comprised of Lambu, Aslam and Fayyaz) and Dhannu Singh group, one Kamlesh of Dhannu group sustained knife injuries and later succumbed to death on his way to the hospital. After a brief period of abscond, Lambu had surrendered him before the Ara court. Since he was a minor at the time, he was sent to juvenile remand home. In Ara, the jails for both the juvenile offenders and adult criminals are housed in a single compound and therefore, he used to move around the whole of the jail and soon got acquainted with local criminals like Chand Miyan, r/o Dharhara, Ara, a dreaded extortionist, and Arun Jhadav, r/o Malikpur, Ara and others.

First Escape from Custody:

After staying for about 14 months in jail, when Lambu along with some other juveniles were being brought back to jail after being produced in a court, when the train carrying them had reached Neora Station, Patna, Lambu managed to escape.

After escaping, Lambu contacted Arun Jhadav, his jail acquaintance, who was then on bail, who further introduced him to one Nagender Paswan and through him to Brijender Paswan, r/o Village Jagwalia, PS Sarauja, District Ara, another hardcore robber and extortionist of the region and soon, Lambu became a prominent name in the Brijender Paswan gang.

Soon, Lambu got involved in a spate of armed robberies and was arrested in 2005 by Police Station Nawada, District Ara. In his second stint in jail, Lambu remained confined for about 3 years i.e. till 2008. It was during this stay that Lambu came in the contact of then jailed Bharat Saxena, r/o Jagdishpur, a known Maoist. Nagender Paswan was also in jail and one Anshu, r/o Dhobaha, Ara used to visit him in jail. Lambu developed friendship with Anshu and came to know that Anshu was involved in the supply of explosives. Bharat Saxena had expertise in bomb manufacturing. Lambu learnt the basics of fabricating switch based IEDs from him. Later, in 2007, Bharat Saxena was released on bail.

Release on Bail in 2008:

In 2008, after being let off on bail, Lambu contacted Anshu who took him to Village Akhgaon, Ara and introduced him with the suppliers of explosives. Lambu was then worried about one advocate Jitender Singh, a relative of Kamlesh who was killed by Lambu in 2004 as he was not ready to compromise the case and was going to depose against him in the then ongoing trial. He conspired to eliminate Jitender Singh by causing a bomb blast with the thought that police would get misled into linking it with a terrorist/Maoist action.

However, procuring explosives required money and this led Lambu to the commission of another robbery. Robbery of tractors was a lucrative trade as it fetched good money. Lambu and his associates robbed a motorcycle at Jagdishpur, Bihian Road on gunpoint to be used for keeping watch on tractor movements. While Lambu along with his associates was waiting for a pray, he was arrested by an alerted police team along with one Rinku and Rajender Paswan while his other associates namely Manohar and Joginder managed to escape. This arrest was affected at Hat Pokar, Jagdishpur and Lambu was incarcerated for the next 10 months.

Second Escape from Police Custody:

In early 2009, Lambu planned another escape from police custody as he desperately wanted to eliminate Advocate Jitender Singh. On a court production, Lambu managed to loosen the handcuffs which were used to secure him along with another jail inmate namely Bhuttan and while the court proceedings were on, escaped.

First Court Bombing, Ara 2009:

After escape, Lambu went to Anshu and procured five live bombs. He took his associate Joginder, who was then absconding after the botched up tractor robbery  to the Ara court as he feared being identified by advocate Jitender Singh if he ventured personally in his proximity to throw the bomb. After initial briefing, when Joginder proceeded towards the chamber of Jitender carrying the live bombs, he accidentally collided with some unknown person and the bombs got exploded, killing Joginder and one another advocate namely Vinay Tiwari on the spot.

Now, Lambu wanted to learn the craft of making sophisticated IEDs and went back to Bharat Saxena, who was out on bail. On his insistence, Bharat Saxena taught him the preparation of IEDs. Soon thereafter, he learnt that Bharat Saxena, Guddul Shah and one another person were killed in an accidental bomb blast.

Lambu was again arrested on a tip off from Matukpur Badhara area and sent back to Ara jail. Now, apart from his old acquaintance Chand Miyan, Lambu came in contact with other notorious criminals and gang-lords like Akhilesh Upadhyaya, r/o Nunar, Ara, Pramod Singh, r/o Ikwari, Ara, Brahmeshwar Mukhia (Chief of Ranbir Sena), Radhe Shyam Verma, r/o Balia, UP and Uma Singh, r/o Balia, UP.

Meeting with Suicide Bomber Nageena:

While Lambu was lodged in jail, he developed close friendship with another inmate namely Uma Singh, r/o Birasi, District Balia, UP. During this period, one Ms. Nageena Devi, r/o Birasi Balia, the girlfriend of Uma Singh used to visit Uma Singh in jail and also used to talk with Uma Singh over the cell phone being used by Lambu in jail. Gradually, Lambu developed intimacy with this lady. After some time, Uma Singh was released from jail but Nageena continued visiting Lambu in the jail or on his court dates. Lambu used to provide him money on these meetings.

Third Escape from Police Custody - January 2015:

While in jail, Lambu contracted the senior gangsters for some sensational crimes and soon, began looking for ways to escape. For this purpose, Lambu Sharma called his old associates Anshu and Rinku and tasked them to purchase explosives and 4 clock batteries, two torch bulbs, electrical wires, switch etc. Lambu gave specific instructions as to how the IED was to be fabricated and gave the finishing touches to the product personally. After the IED was prepared, Lambu handed the same to Anshu and Rinku decided to use Nageena for initiating the bomb. Lambu informed Nageena that Anshu will provide him with a packet which she had to carry to the court and thereafter, his instructions which would be conveyed to her using a cell phone (with blue tooth) will have to be followed. Taking advantage of Nageena’s innocence, Lambu told her that the packet contained a secret camera and the switch was to be used to click it on so that pictures of prisoners’ movements from the jail van to the court rooms could be taken for subsequent planning. On 11^th January 2015, the first attempt failed as Nageena Devi could not reach the court premises at the specific time. Next date of court hearing was fixed for 23^rd January 20115. On this date, the plan was executed to perfection and the IED exploded killing Nageena along with a police constable namely Amit and taking advantage of the chaos, Lambu and another jail mate Akhilesh managed to escape.

Since then, Lambu was on the run, travelling across various States like Orissa, Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab, UP etc., making new bases and developing further contacts while studiously avoiding visiting Bihar. He had also changed his getup and was sporting a stubble beard and had put on a namazi cap so as to look like a Muslim person. However, he ran out of his luck when the Special Cell went after his trail and was finally arrested on 23^rd June 2015.

The revelations made by the arrested accused of his current plans and activities are being shared with the Bihar Police.