A Patna court on Wednesday sentenced former member of Parliament Anand Mohan and two others to death for the murder of Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah in 1994.
In a landmark verdict that is bound to have political ramifications, Additional Sessions Judge Ram Krishna Rai also awarded capital punishment to two others -- former MLA and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Akhlaq Ahmed and Arun Kumar -- in connection with the brutal killing of G Krishnaiah on December 5, 1994.
Anand's wife Lovely, a former MP from Vaishali, was awarded the life sentence. The court also gave life sentences to Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla, a sitting JD-U MLA from Lalganj, Shashi Shekhar and Harendra Kumar.
The court had earlier found Mohan, who was a leader of the Bihar People's Party at the time of the incident, and his wife guilty of inciting a mob to lynch Krishnaiah.
The district magistrate was killed near Khabra, on the outskirts of Muzaffarpur, by a mob that was enraged over the death of Chotan Shukla, an underworld don with political ambitions. Shukla and three others were gunned down when they were returning from an election campaign for the 1995 assembly polls.
The district magistrate was lynched by a mob accompanying the funeral procession of Shukla on December 5, 1994. The officer was pulled out of a car, beaten mercilessly and then shot dead. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on the seven convicted accused. Earlier, 29 of the 36 arrested accused were acquitted on benefit of doubt.
Soon after the sentences were delivered, the seven convicts complained about the shabby treatment meted out to them at the Beur Central Jail. Mohan said that he, Akhlaq Ahmed and Arun Kumar were locked up in a cell without a fan. He added that his wife Lovely Anand was lodged in a ward along with mentally retarded women.
"As long as we are alive, the court should ensure that we exist like humans", Mohan told the judge, who responded that he will write to the jail superintendent and Patna district magistrate about the matter.
Speaking to mediapersons later, Mohan pointed out that 15 inspectors and two sub-divisional officers accompanying the funeral procession of Chotan Shukla could not save the life of the district magistrate. "What could I have done," he said.
Munna Shukla said he was with the body of his slain brother in front of the funeral procession while the district magistrate was lynched by the mob in the rear. "I simply do not know who killed Krishnaiah," he said.
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