Bihar gangster rearrested after fleeing from police custody

Patna: A gangster, also the husband of a Bihar legislator, was on Wednesday rearrested in Bhagalpur district two days after he escaped from a lockup in the state`s Purnea district, police said.

Awadhesh Mandal, husband of Janata Dal-United (JD-U) legislator Bima Bharti, escaped on Sunday night from the police lockup, Purnea Superintendent of Police Nishant Tiwari said.

Tiwari said a police team from Purnea arrested Mandal from Bhagalpur. "Mandal was arrested from the house of the `mukhiya` of Parbatta village in Naugachia area along with two others."

According to police, Mandal took advantage of a siege that his supporters demanding his release had laid round the police station in which he was detained.

Mandal was arrested and brought to the Maranga police station for threatening witness Sonia Devi not to depose in the court in connection with the murder of her husband Chanchal Paswan.

Paswan was killed in 2005 and Mandal was named as an accused.