Wednesday 03rd of October 2007
Former Lok Sabha MP and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Anand Mohan Singh was
Wednesday sentenced to death with two other politicians for the brutal 1994
lynching of an upright IAS officer while his ex-MP wife Lovely Anand was jailed
for life for the same crime.
Thirteen years after a mob led by the husband-wife duo shot and then stoned to
death a bleeding G. Krishnaiya, the Gopalganj district magistrate, on a
national highway, a Patna court pronounced the much-awaited verdict.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Ramshreshta Rai awarded death sentence
to Anand Mohan Singh, founder leader of the Bihar People's Party (BPP) who
later joined Bihar's ruling JD-U, as well as former Bihar minister Akhlaq
Ahmad, now a leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and Arun Kumar, formerly
with BPP.
The court also gave life imprisonment to four politicians, including former Lok
Sabha MP Lovely Anand, a JD-U leader and wife of Anand Mohan, along with Munna
Shukla, a JD-U legislator from Lalganj, and Shashi Shekhar Thakur and Harendra
Kumar, who lost the last Lok Sabha election as a JD-U candidate.
The court found Anand Mohan Singh and the others guilty under Sections 302,
307, 147, and 427 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
All the seven politicians were taken into custody and sent to Beur jail.
Krishnaiya, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, was shot at and then
stoned by a mob near Khaabra village on National Highway 28 on Dec 5, 1994 when
he was returning to Gopalganj from Hajipur via Muzaffarpur after attending an
official meeting.
Krishnaiya was from a very poor family in Andhra Pradesh. His father used to be
a labourer.
According to the police, Krishnaiya's vehicle was intercepted by a mob led by
Anand Mohan Singh, then chief of BPP. His wife Lovely Anand, Munna Shukla and
Akhlaq Ahmad were also part of the mob, which comprised mainly armed henchmen
and supporters of Anand Mohan Singh.
The mob was protesting the killing of former BPP leader Kaushalendra Shukla
alias Chhotan Shukla.
Krishnaiya, whose predecessor had also been killed by a bomb, was first shot.
The officer began to bleed but did not die. Anand Mohan Singh's supporters then
dragged him out of the vehicle and mercilessly stoned him to death.
The brutal killing of an IAS officer - watched by hundreds of people -
instantly earned notoriety for Anand Mohan Singh although he was already a
feared man in the region that he considered his bastion.
Anand Mohan Singh was arrested and jailed for the murder. But he contested the
1996 parliamentary election from prison - and won. He then secured bail to
attend parliament. He was re-elected in 1998 but lost the 1999 election.
Anand Mohan Singh formed the Krantikari Samajwadi Sena in 1980 but lost the Lok
Sabha election that year. He became a Janata Dal legislator in 1990.
The next year, he was accused of killing an independent candidate from
Madhepura. He formed the BPP in 1993 but failed to win from any of the three
assembly seats he contested in 1995.
But he entered the Lok Sabha in 1996 from Sheohar. He won the seat again in
1998 but lost to Anwarul Haque in 1999.
Anand Mohan Singh and Munna Shukla are facing several criminal cases, including
those related to murder, attempt to murder, extortion and abduction, in various
courts.
Anand Mohan Singh's name spelt terror in the Saharsa-Supaul belt while Shukla
is feared in the Vaishali-Muzaffarpur belt of north Bihar.
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Patna: A court on Monday convicted a couple Anand Mohan and Lovely Anand
both former MPs, belonging to the ruling JD(U) and five others for the lynching
of a district magistrate nearly 11 years ago.
Additional District and Sessions judge Ram Krishna Rai convicted the seven
under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (rioting) and 427
(mischief causing damage) of the IPC.
The quantum of punishment would be announced on October 3.
The other convicted are JD(U) MLA from Lalganj, Vijay Kumar Shukla, former MLA
Akhlaq Ahmed, Shashi Shekhar and Arun Kumar Sinha.
The judge also convicted Mohan, Lovely Anand and Arun Kumar Sinha under section
109 (abetment) of the IPC.
Krishnaiah, the then district magistrate of Gopalganj, was lynched by a mob
accompanying the cortege of Bihar Peoples Party (BPP) leader Chhotan Shukla on
December 5, 1994. The party is virtually defunct now.
Anand Mohan, a former MP from Sheohar, who was then the BPP chief and Lovely
Anand, former MP from Vaishali, were present at the funeral procession besides
Munna Shukla, the younger brother of Chhotan Shukla, former MLA from Bikramganj
Akhlaq Ahmed, Shashi Shekhar and Arun Kumar Sinha.
They were accused of having incited the mob to kill Krishnaiah.
The judge, however, acquitted 29 of the 36 accused in the case, giving them
benefit of doubt.
Krishnaiah was killed near Khabra, on the outskirts of Muzaffarpur town, by the
mob which was enraged over the gunning down of Chhotan Shukla, an underworld
don with political ambitions, and five others on December 4, 1994 when they
were returning from an election campaign for the 1995 Assembly polls.
The killing was attributed to henchmen of former Bihar minister, Brij Bihari
Prasad, who was shot dead in retribution on June 13, 1998, when he was
undergoing treatment in judicial custody at the Indira Gandhi Institute of
Medical Sciences in Patna.
Prasad had then been under arrest for alleged involvement in irregular
admissions to technical institutions as science and technology minister.
Chhotan Shuklas assassination had triggered a virtual gang war between those
loyal to the slain don and Prasad.
Prasads killing was preceded by the murder of Devendra Nath Dubey, an
independent MLA from Govindganj, close to Chhotan.
Several politicians, including LJP MP Surajbhan Singh, Munna Shukla and former
independent MLA Rajan Tiwari are among those accused in the Brij Bihari murder
case, the trial of which is under way.
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'Don't write I was crying
'4 Oct 2007, 0149 hrs IST, TNN
PATNA: Though convicted of murder, they looked cool politicians in their
usual hues, exchanging pleasantries with supporters, assembled in hordes on the
court premises. Some of the supporters even passed on bottles of mineral water
to them through the windows. Once the judge uttered "capital punishment," it
was as if a bombshell had been dropped a deafening silence engulfed the
courtroom.
Then securitymen ran helter-skelter to gear themselves up for controlling the
crowd. So did the convicted politicians' relatives and supporters with mobiles
stuck to their ears, apparently in a hurry to inform others.
Anand Mohan's face was expressionless. Wearing a full-sleeved white shirt and
white trousers, his trademark dress, the former MP, however, appeared totally
different from the fiery politician, he was once famed as, who minced no words
in berating his "enemies" like Lalu Prasad, the then CM or, for that matter,
Saharsa's men in uniform. His wife Lovely Anand, in steel grey, gold-bordered
saree, also remained poker-faced while coming out of the courtroom. "Don't
write that I was crying," Mohan told reporters as he meekly waved to the crowd.
Awarded life term, Munna Shukla, in pyjama-kurta, was a picture in contrast. He
also waved to the crowd, more vigorously than Mohan, and his grin appeared to
betray the relief of having been spared from the gallows.
Elaborate security arrangements were in place at the Patna civil court campus,
along the river Ganga. After the defence and prosecution counsel argued on the
quantum of sentence in the first half of the day, the judge at 12.15 noon
retired to his chamber saying he would deliver the order at 2.30 pm. Tongues
wagged and the delay only added to the tension.
Arun Kumar Sinha was seen sermonising his young son. "These are testing
times... Study hard and look after your mother," he told the son even as
securitymen took Sinha and other convicts to the court verandah after the judge
reserved his order.
As the judge resumed, an over-enthusiastic police officer asked all newsmen to
vacate the court room. The newsmen almost cried for the judge's intervention,
and he came to their rescue.
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Fear grips netas facing trial
4 Oct 2007, 0109 hrs IST,TNN
PATNA: The court order awarding death and life imprisonment to Anand Mohan and
Lovely Anand has sent shivers down the spines of many more politicians in Bihar
against whom criminal cases are pending.
Some influential politicians, mainly MPs and MLAs, are facing trial and for
some others verdicts could come any day. Those in the line of fire include MPs
Prabhunath Singh (JD-U) and Surajbhan Singh (LJP), suspended JD(U) MLA Narendra
Pandey alias Sunil Pandey and former MLA Rajan Tewary. Another MP Rajesh Ranjan
alias Pappu Yadav of RJD is also in the queue. Bihar principal home secretary
Afzal Amanullah said bureaucracy, across the board, welcomed the verdict.
Though people were sceptical of the "speedy trial campaign" launched by the
state government, the court's order has restored the people's faith in the
judicial system, he added.
"The government is keen that whosoever and howsoever powerful he/she may be,
without any favour, will face the consequences, if convicted by the court,"
Amanullah told TOI on Wednesday.
He also asserted that the court trials would be further accelerated and all the
SPs had been ordered to monitor at least ten major cases in their districts.
"There may be many elements who are hoping to get some relief once this speedy
trial process slows down. But they should note that this will not happen and
government is committed to see the law-breakers being adequately punished," he
said.
RJD strongman and Siwan MP Mohammad Shahabuddin has been convicted and punished
in four separate cases including life term in one of them. There is hardly any
hope for him to come out of prison.
The trial of Prabhunath Singh, the vocal JD(U) MP from Maharajganj, is in the
final stage and the verdict is awaited any day. The cases relate to abduction
and murder. Against LJP MP Surajbhan Singh an accused in over half-a-dozen
criminal cases the trial has already begun. Similarly, in the Brij Behari
murder case, the hearing has been almost completed in the special CBI court and
only some legal formalities need to be completed.
Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, the RJD MP from Madhepura, and former MLA
Rajan Tewary are the accused in the case. Wednesday's sentence is enough to
make those politicians with pending criminal cases against them, a scared lot.
Bihar Group
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://yahoogroups.com/group/Bihar-Network
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