By IANS
Patna : A Patna court Wednesday awarded death sentence to three politicians including a former MP and a former minister and life imprisonment to four including a sitting legislator and a former MP in a case related to the murder of Gopalganj district magistrate G. Krishnaiya in 1994.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Ramshreshta Rai awarded death sentence to former MP Anand Mohan Singh, Bihar People’s Party chief -turned- Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader, along with former minister Akhlaq Ahmad who is now leader of Rashtriya Janata Dal and Arun Kumar, a former leader associated with BPP.
The court also gave life imprisonment to former MP Lovely Anand, JD-U leader and wife of Anand Mohan Singh, along with Munna Shukla, the sitting JD-U legislator from Lalganj, Shashi Shekhar Thakur and Harendra Kumar, who unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha poll on a JD-U ticket.
It Monday found them guilty under Sections 302, 307, 147, and 427 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). All seven were then taken into custody and sent to Beur jail.
Krishnaiya, a 1985 batch Indian Administrative Service (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 and his father used to be a labourer.
According to the police report, Krishnaiya’s vehicle was intercepted by a mob led by Anand Mohan Singh, then chief of the 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 police said.
The mob was protesting the killing of former BPP leader Kaushalendra Shukla alias Chhotan Shukla.
Anand Mohan Singh and Munna Shukla are facing several criminal cases, including of murder, in various courts. If Anand Mohan Singh’s name spells terror in the Saharsa-Supaul belt, Shukla is feared in the Vaishali-Muzaffarpur belt of north Bihar.
They both rose to power after the murder. Anand Mohan Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 for the first time, though he had been elected to the state assembly in 1990. Shukla was elected to the Bihar assembly in 2000 for the first time.