Ten days after the Nitish Kumar-led government amended the Bihar Police Jail Manuals, 2012, the Law department of the state government on Monday notified rules for the release former Member of Parliament (MP) Anand Mohan Singh and 26 others.
The state Law department’s order was based on the State Sentence Remission Council giving its go-ahead to release all 27 prisoners, who are lodged in different prisons across the state.
In an order on April 10, the Bihar government dropped “murder of a public servant on duty” as one of the cases in which an accused would not be eligible for premature release.
The release of Anand Mohan has not only triggered a political backlash in the state, but also from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, with former Chief Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati calling the move “anti-Dalit”, and asking the government to “reconsider its decision”, even if there are “compulsions”.
Who is Anand Mohan?
Former MP from the Sheohar Lok Sabha seat, Anand Mohan was convicted in 2007 in the murder of 1985-batch IAS officer and then District Magistrate of Gopalganj G Krishnaiah, in 1994.
Anand Mohan was sentenced to death by a trial court of Patna additional district and sessions judge in 2007. A year later, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the Patna High Court. The court, while delivering the verdict had observed that Anand Mohan had himself not murdered the officer and as such did not merit a death sentence, reported The Times of India.
Mohan then challenged the verdict in Supreme Court but no relief has been granted yet and he remained in Saharsa jail since 2007. He is currently out on parole to attend the wedding of his son and RJD legislator Chetan Anand.
The 69-year-old mafia-turned-politician was convicted for inciting a mob that was leading a protest march in Vaishali against the killing of muscleman Kaushlendra Kumar alias Chhotan Shukla.
IAS officer G Krishnaiah, who was on his way back to Gopalganj from Hajipur on December 5, 1994, when attendees in Shukla’s funeral procession intercepted his vehicle at Khabra village near Muzaffarpur.
Egged on by Anand Mohan, the crowd vented its anger towards Krishnaiah, who was born in a Dalit family in Mahabubnagar district of undivided Andhra Pradesh, now Telangana. He was dragged out of his car and lynched.
The prosecution submitted in Patna High Court in 2008 that Chhotan was killed in an encounter, and the mourners, which also included Anand Mohan, incited Chottan’s brother Bhutkun to shoot Krishnaiah as he was part of the government that killed Chottan.
Notably, the former MP, a Rajput leader, was a member of the Samata Party along with Nitish Kumar, and is still counted as one of the state’s most prominent politicians, with sizeable clout among voters in the Koshi and adjoining regions. His wife Lovely Anand has also been a Lok Sabha MP.
His son Chetan Anand is a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA from Sheohar. Chetan got married on Monday, which was attended by his father, who is on parole, and also by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.
Rajput leaders in the Nitish-led Janata Dal (United) have been putting pressure on the Mahagathbandhan government for his early release from jail.
Bihar Jail Rules tweaked, 27 prisoners to be released
The Bihar government’s April 10 order tweaked Rule 481(i)(a) of the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012.
As per Rule 481(i)(a) of the jail manual: “Every convicted prisoner, whether male or female, undergoing sentence of life imprisonment and covered by the provisions of Section 433A CrPC, shall be eligible to be considered for premature release from prison immediately after serving out the sentence of 14 years of actual imprisonment, i.e. without the remissions.”
It lists categories of convicted prisoners covered under the Section who would be entitled to be considered for premature release only after serving 20 years, including remissions. It included murder, rape, murder in terrorist incident, among others. Those convicted of murdering public servants were also included in the list till April 10.
