What connects Bihar MLA Shyam Bahadur Singh and Pokémon Go?

Janata Dal (United) MLA Shyam Bahadur Singh is an interesting man. Elected for the second time in the 2015 Bihar Assembly Election from the Barharia consituency in the state’s Siwan district, Singh is known for his penchant for the finer things in life: Riding an elephant to Assembly, shaking a leg, shaking the other leg, shaking both legs at once, shaking everything else (well, you get the idea), and as it has been alleged in certain quarters, harbouring a certain fondness for the bottle. The 53-year-old with three criminal cases against him (including two charges related to theft under Section 379 of the Indian Penal Code and one charge 1 related to an attempt to murder under Section 307) found himself in yet another soup on Sunday as a fairly incriminating video footage emerged on the World Wide Web. Said footage appears to depict the MLA gyrating oddly, pushing women around and prancing around in a manner that can be described as ’lewd’ and ’lascivious’. That’s what the video appears to depict, without a sense of context. We dispatched our investigative team to Barharia to find out just what happened. As it turns out, they never made the trip — only a phonecall — and then spent a couple of hours watching trains. Upon returning to the office FP Special Forces headquarters, they told us a very interesting Shyam Bahadur Singh factoid: The MLA is an avid gamer with a particular predilection for Pokémon Go. It’s all starting to make a bit more sense now, right? Singh, it would transpire, was a man on the receiving end of a very bad day. He was invited to an event that he attended, reluctantly. He tried to sit at the back but was forced to sit right at the front so as not to offend his hosts. And then, all of a sudden, something went off on his cellphone. The level seven trainer — at the time anyway — needed only 100 XP points to unlock level eight, as well as 15 Poké Balls, 10 Potions, 5 Revives, 10 Razz Berry, one Lure Modulator and a Razz Berry. Naturally, he wasn’t going to let the little critter go without a fight. Particularly if the critter happened to be a Charizard — a fire-breathing champ! Let no one tell you otherwise. Unfortunately, that’s when tragedy struck. Just as he approached his potential prey, Charizard disappeared… or so it seemed. Luckily for Singh, he was able to sort out that problem and set about capturing Charizard. Unfortunately, the day went from bad to worse for Singh — first, being forced to attend the event; second, being made to sit right up front and now, this — as he discovered in his midst two other trainers with their greedy eyes on Charizard. There was only one way around this and that was to shove the lot of them out of the way. But on a day that makes battling Lt Surge for the Thunder Badge in the Vermilion City Gym look like a walk in the park, Singh should really have expected that nothing was going to go his way. Pikachu, it would appear, wasn’t in the mood. And then that video went viral. A terrible day altogether. Disclaimer: We’re not entirely sure that Singh actually plays Pokémon Go, but if he does, it’s heartening to see how much effort he puts into catching ’em all. If he doesn’t, perhaps he should. It’ll keep him occupied and away from whatever it is he’s meant to be doing in the video.