Reversing acquittal, SC convicts RJD ex-MP Prabhunath of double murder

New Delhi, August 18

Reversing the Patna High Court’s verdict of acquittal, the Supreme Court today held RJD leader and former MP Prabhunath Singh guilty in the 1995 double murder case.

A three-judge Bench of Justices SK Kaul, Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath directed the Bihar Home Secretary and the state’s DGP “to ensure Prabhunath is taken into custody forthwith” and produced before it on September 1. It, however, upheld the acquittal of six other accused in the case.

Prabhunath, a three-term JD(U) 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. However, he is already in jail after being found guilty in 2017 in connection with the 1995 murder of MLA Ashok Singh, who defeated him in the Bihar Assembly poll.

“The tainted probe shows the high-handedness of the accused, who was a powerful MP of a ruling party… In present case, unfortunately the trial court as well as the high court failed to exercise their powers,” the Bench said.