Ex-Jharkhand Minister gets life term for para-teacher’s murder

Ranchi, July 3 (IANS) A former state Minister and now Jharkhand Party's lone legislator, Enos Ekka, was on Tuesday awarded life imprisonment in connection with the killing of a para-teacher by a Jharkhand court.

The Simdega district court had on June 30 convicted him for murder of para-teacher Manoj Kumar. On Tuesday, the court of Judge Neeraj Srivastav sentenced him to jail for life and also fined him Rs. 1 lakh.

Ekka is the fourth legislator of the current state Legislative Assembly to lose membership after being awarded jail term of more than two years.

He is the same legislator who had played a key role in formation and fall of state governments between 2005 and 2009. With his support Madhu Koda, an Independent legislator and then Minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government of Arjun Munda, had became Chief Minister in 2006.

Manoj Kumar was a para-teacher associated with Enos Ekka's party. He was a popular leader of the Kolibera assembly constituency of Simdega district from where currently Ekka is a legislator.

Before 2014 assembly polls, Manoj Kumar left association with Enos Ekka and supported another candidate. Manoj was abducted by gunmen at the behest of Enos Ekka and later his body was found in jungle.

The family members had lodged an FIR naming Enos Ekka. He was later arrested on the basis of the FIR.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)