Anil Sharma, the former chairman and managing director of the Amrapali Group, has been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a case of murder of Sharad Chand, former secretary of Bihar-based educational institution Balika Vidyapeeth, PTI reported, citing agency officials. Orders to this effect were issued by the Patna High Court last month.
Anil Sharma is already facing a number of cases of cheating and bank fraud. He has now been booked under murder charges in the eight-year-old case. Others named in the CBI’s FIR include Lakhisarai-based Praveen Sinha, Shyam Sundar Prasad, Rajendra Singhania, Shambhu Sharan Singh and then principal of Balika Vidyapeeth Anita Singh.
Sharad Chand, then secretary of Balika Vidyapeeth, was allegedly shot dead while he was reading a newspaper sitting on the verandah of his residence located inside the premises of the institution at around 6.30 AM on August 2, 2014, the FIR states, adding that the crime was committed pursuant to a criminal conspiracy hatched to usurp the land and assets of the educational institution.
“It has…. been alleged that in August 2009, one Anil Sharma, MD of Amrapali Group, had usurped the trust of Balika Vidyapeeth with the help of Rajendra Prasad Singhania, Dr Praveen Kumar Sinha, Shyam Sunder Prasad and Shambhu Sharan Singh, and the deceased was removed forcibly and since then, a dispute was going on between both the parties,” the FIR says.
The FIR, cited by PTI, further alleges that the income of Balika Vidyapeeth was also being usurped by opening a personal account that was operated by Sinha and Singh. It further adds that Chand had filed complaints alleging irregularities in the functioning of the institution and that the deceased was being issued threats regularly. “The deceased was also regularly threatened and attacked, his house was damaged and firings were made in the past,” it says.
The matter reached the Patna High Court after the wife of the deceased approached the court stating that the Bihar police was not handling the case properly. The court came down heavily on the Bihar Police CID following the latter’s submission that it had made no substantial headway in the case.
“…This court has found that in the counter-affidavit of the CID, there is no whisper and/or an attempt to explain the reasons for the huge and inordinate delay in conduct of investigation in a murder case,” Justice Rajeev Ranjan Prasad had observed, adding that the CID of the Bihar Police had “virtually dumped” the investigation into the case and had “failed to perform its statutory duty” to conduct a free, fair and impartial investigation in the case.
The case was subsequently transferred to the CBI which filed the FIR in the case on Wednesday.
(With PTI inputs)