Anand Mohan Singh

Anand Mohan Singh is a convicted criminal who for a period became a politician and was founder of the now-defunct Bihar People's Party (BPP). As of 2014^[update], he is serving a life sentence for abetting murder; prior to reduction to this term on appeal, he had been the first politician in independent India to be given the death penalty. He comes from the village of Panchgachiya in Saharsa district, Bihar, India, where some of the population consider him to be a Robin Hood figure.

Anand Mohan Singh comes from Pachgachhia village in Saharsa district, Bihar. He is the grandson of Ram Bahadur Singh, an Indian freedom fighter. His introduction to politics came through involvement with the Sampoorna Kranti movement of Jayaprakash Narayan, which caused him to drop out of college in 1974.

Singh claims to have begun his career as a violent criminal when he was aged 17 and that this was in response to the treatment of poor people by what he describes as "politicised criminals" in his native state of Bihar. The politics of Bihar has for many years been influenced by caste divisions, and Singh has been portrayed as a leader of the Rajput community in the state. Shifts in power, especially since 1990, have reduced the Rajputs, who are traditionally a ruling class, into a subordinate position.

Singh has made no secret of his resort to violence and his methods have been subject to investigation since at least 1978. It was around that time that he protested against the then Prime Minister of India, Morarji Desai, by waving black flags while a speech was being delivered. Around 1980 he founded the Samajwadi Krantikari Sena, which was among the first Bihari organisations intended to combat the rise of the lower castes. He was classed as an outlaw and rewards were offered for his arrest from time to time.

...
Wikipedia