'CCA against Mantu soon'

Patna: Dreaded gangster Pradyuman Kumar Sharma alias Mantu Sharma, 48, will soon be booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and Crime Control Act (CCA). Patna police will make the recommendations in this regard to the state home department which forwards it to the high court.
Mantu was arrested from Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh a few days back and brought to Patna on transit remand.The state government had announced Rs1 lakh reward on his head. He was wanted in at least 21 criminal cases, including murder, kidnapping for ransom and extortion, in different parts of Bihar.
Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj said, "We will soon recommend his name for the Crime Control Act (CCA)-12. Under the provisions of the CCA-12, the accused is supposed to stay inside jail for a year and court does not grant bail to him/her."
The SSP said, "During his nearly two decades in the crime world, Mantu has amassed huge property worth crores of rupees. We have taken the help of economic offences unit (EOU) to find the exact worth of his property."
He said Mantu, a native of Chhapra, had eluded arrest for nearly 13 years before he was nabbed by the STF from his hideout in Lucknow in 2013. Later, he got bail. His partner Shambhu Sharma was also arrested by the STF the same year from Dehradun, but he, too, is on bail and active in the crime world.
Sources said Mantu owns movable and immovable property in Chhapra, Lucknow and Dehradun. He has a palatial house in Ashiana area of Lucknow where his son and wife stay. He was held from the same house twice. He was infamous for demanding extortion, especially from construction companies and businessmen working in Bihar.
The SSP said Mantu used to demand 10% of the project cost as extortion in all the works of Central Public Works Department (CPWD) going on in Bihar.
Police sources said Mantu, during his recent interrogation, confessed to killing BSNL contractor Ram Naresh Sharma in 2005 and Ratnesh Singh, a security guard at the National Litchi Research Centre, Mushari, in 2010, besides 14 other people in Patna, Vaishali, Samastipur and other districts.