Bihar tweaks rules, frees murder convict ex-MP

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 25

The Bihar Government late last evening issued a notification paving the way for the release of former MP Anand Mohan, who has been serving a life sentence in a case related to the killing of IAS officer G Krishnaiah.

Along with Mohan, 26 others, who have been serving jail terms in Bihar for over 14 years, will also be set free.

Incidentally, Mohan, who has been on parole, was celebrating the engagement of his son Chetan Anand, a sitting MLA of the ruling RJD in the state.

Talking to reporters, Mohan expressed gratitude towards CM Nitish Kumar, who, along with his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, was among the attendees at the function organised on the outskirts of Patna.

Mohan countered the BJP’s accusation by referring to the Bilkis Bano gang rape case.

Expressing displeasure over the decision, the late IAS officer’s wife, Uma Krishnaiah, while talking to reporters in Hyderabad, hit out at the Nitish government saying, “It is wrong. There is caste politics in Bihar… he (Mohan) is a Rajput, he will get Rajput votes; that’s why he is being freed.” She accused the Bihar CM of amending the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012, for “his own benefit”.

Lashing out at the state government, BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi said, “In 2016, you (Kumar) amended the law and included that those found guilty of killing a government official will never be given the benefit of remission. Now, for your own benefit, you have amended the law again so that you can win the poll.”

JDU president Rajiv Ranjan (Lalan) Singh, in a tweet in Hindi, said, “Mohan has served his jail term and the Nitish government has removed a discriminatory clause which prevented some of the prisoners from securing release. It is in line with our leader’s policy of framing no innocent person and sparing nobody who is guilty.”

On Mohan being probably the first lawmaker to be a murder convict who is being given remission, former Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Achary said, “I don’t remember any murder convict becoming a member of Parliament.”

The Telangana-born Dalit IAS officer Krishnaiah, who was then the District Magistrate of Gopalganj, was beaten to death by a mob in 1994, while his vehicle was passing through Muzaffarpur district.

Mohan was present on the spot at the time of the killing, where he was part of the funeral procession of Chhotan Shukla, a dreaded gangster. The sensational killing had acquired caste overtones in an era when Bihar was stirred by the Mandal wave.

Besides Mohan, those whose release has been ordered include former RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav, convicted of raping a minor girl, and Awadhesh Mandal, a former legislator of the JD(U), named in many criminal cases, whose wife Bima Bharti is a former minister.

• IAS officer G Krishnaiah was beaten to death by a mob in 1994
• He was then the District Magistrate of Gopalganj
• Anand Mohan was present on the spot at time of the killing
• Was part of gangster Chhotan Shukla’s funeral procession

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