Supreme Court convicts RJD leader and former Bihar MP Prabhunath Singh in double murder case

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, August 18

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

“Prabhunath Singh (accused no.1) is thus liable to be convicted under Sections 302 and 307 IPC for committing culpable homicide amounting to murder and attempt to murder,” a three-judge Bench of Justice SK Kaul, Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Vikram Nath said.

The Bench directed the Bihar Home Secretary and the state’s Director General of Police “to ensure that Prabhunath Singh is taken into custody forthwith” and produced before it on September 1 be heard on the question of quantum of sentence to be awarded.

The Bench, 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 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 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,” it 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 said.