Sanjay Singh, leader of the private militia Pandav Sena and charged in 27 cases in Bihar pertaining to murder, extortion, abduction, and arms act, was arrested from Patna Junction on Tuesday morning by the Bihar STF (Special Task Force), police said. Singh had evaded arrest for the past one year in a case related to the recovery of an AK-47 assault rifle, live cartridges and a .315 bore rifle.
The Pandav Sena is a criminal gang formed in the 1990s by some rich landowners in central Bihar. The group is involved in illegal sand mining and has murdered several people. The 27 cases against Singh were registered in Patna, Jehanabad, Bhagalpur, Ranchi, Hajaribagh police stations.
Singh was wanted in a case registered with Bihta police station against him and 14 of his named associates on August 24, 2025. The FIR alleged that Singh’s associates were involved in illegal sand mining in the riverine areas of Saran, Bhojpur and Patna district and extorted ₹5,000 each from sand-laden boats. Those who refused to pay were threatened with weapons, police said.
Police carried out a raid on August 23, 2025, and caught 14 people and recovered an AK-47 assault rifle, a .315 bore rifle and 120 live cartridges of different bore.
“On April 26, 2022 armed bike-borne criminals led by Singh gunned down famous hotel operator Abhiram Sharma in his house in Kanaudi in Jehanabad district. Sharma’s nephew Dinesh was shot dead around the same time near Masaudhi in rural Patna,” said Kundan Krishnan, director general of operations, Bihar STF.
On April 27, 2022, Gautam Singh, 32, and his elder brother Shambhu Singh, residents of Neema village near Dhanarua in rural Patna, were gunned down by bike-borne assailants. The victims were the brothers of Chitranjan Kumar Sharma, a former BJP MLA from Arwal constituency and also a former member of Pandav Sena.
Police said that Abhiram was the uncle of Chitranjan, while Singh allegedly hatched a conspiracy to eliminate them. “In this case, Singh was arrested from Ranchi by an STF team and a rifle with a magazine, 21 live cartridges, four cell phones and two electronic devices were recovered from his possession, and he was sent to jail,” he added.
Singh is a resident of Neema village in rural Patna. He had formed the Pandav Sena supposedly after splitting off from the Ranvir Sena, another organised criminal gang.
During the Rabri Devi’s rule in 2000, the Pandav Sena was mainly active in Jehanabad, Arwal, rural Patna and parts of Gaya Nalanda and Purnea. In 2004, police had arrested the gang members with Singh’s wife and sent them to judicial custody in Beur jail. Police had also seized sophisticated arms from their possession.
Patna SSP Kartikey K Sharma said that police will take Singh on remand in the recovery of AK-47 assault rifle case.
