Supreme Court awards life imprisonment to RJD leader and ex-MP Prabhuath Singh in double murder case

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, September 1

The Supreme Court on Friday awarded life imprisonment to RJD leader and former MP Prabhunath Singh who was held guilty in a 28-year-old double murder case.

Reversing the concurrent finding of acquittal reached by the trial court and the Patna High Court, a three-judge Bench of Justice SK Kaul, Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Vikram Nath – which had on August 18 pronounced Singh guilty in the case – also awarded a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh to the injured in the crime in 1995. Singh was also awarded seven-year imprisonment for attempted murder.

The Bench said half the compensation amount will be paid by the convict while the State of Bihar will have to shell out the rest.

“We have never seen a case like this,” the Bench said about the case in which Singh killed two persons for not voting as per his directions.

“Prabhunath Singh (accused no.1) is thus liable to be convicted under Sections 302 and 307 of the IPC for committing culpable homicide amounting to murder and attempt to murder,” the Bench had said. It had, however, upheld the acquittal of six other accused in the case.

Singh — a three-term Janata Dal (United) and a one-time RJD MP from Maharajganj in Bihar – was earlier let off by the trial court and the Patna High Court in the double murder of  Daroga Rai and Rajendra Rai for want of sufficient evidence to show he murdered the duo near a polling booth in Chhapra in 1995.

He was already in jail after being found guilty in 2017 in connection with the 1995 murder of legislator Ashok Singh, who defeated him in the Bihar assembly poll.

“The tainted investigation shows the high-handedness of the accused-respondent no. 2, who was a powerful person, being a sitting MP of the ruling party,” the top court had said.

“In the present case, unfortunately the trial court as well as the High Court failed to exercise their powers…to summon the witnesses of the charge-sheet to prove the police papers,” the top court had noted.