Nitish Kumar defends release of ex-MP Anand Mohan

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Friday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for kicking up a storm over the release of politician Anand Mohan (of the now defunct Bihar People’s Party) and for “politicising a completely non-political issue”.

Mohan was awarded life imprisonment for the murder of a young Dalit officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1994. The Bihar government had recently notified his release by amending the state’s prison manual, sparking a political row and leading to sharp criticism from several quarters.

“There is nothing unusual about it (Mohan’s release),” Kumar told reporters in Patna. “Just compare the number of prisoners released with or without remission every year across the country. In 2020-21, the number was 105 in Bihar, while it was six times in Uttar Pradesh and in many states (which are) smaller in size, it was three to four times,” he said.

He also said that “it was strange how and why a political party was creating so much fuss over something that has been done in accordance with the laid down provisions”.

While the Janata Dal (United) leader did not name anyone, he showed photographs of some BJP leaders with Mohan which, he claimed, were clicked a few months ago.

“It (Mohan’s release) is not a political issue. The release has been done as per laid down provisions. I am surprised by the statements of some people. They were also in favour of it till a couple of months ago, and are now politicising it,” Kumar said.

“The central guidelines issued in 2016 has no such clause differentiating between murder of a common man and a government servant. Bihar had such a clause and we removed it. Is there a need for such a distinction? Anand Mohan has served his sentence and his release is as per laid down provisions after seeking opinions from concerned quarters. It is not a political thing,” he added.

On December 5, 1994, Mohan instigated a mob that dragged Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiah out of his official car and killed him, an investigation into the case revealed. He was sentenced to death by a trial court in 2007. However, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the Patna high court a year later.

On April 10, the state government amended the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012, removing the “murder of a public servant on duty” clause from the list of cases for which remission of jail term cannot be considered, which helped Mohan, a Rajput leader with considerable influence on his caste voters.

On Monday evening, the Bihar law department issued a notification, stating that on the recommendation of the Bihar state sentence remission council, the “decision was taken for the release of prisoners having served actual sentence of 14 years or sentence of 20 years with remission.” It notified the release of 27 prisoners, including Mohan.

Mohan walked out of prison at 4am on Thursday. The BJP had accused Kumar of “leaning on a criminal syndicate”.

Reacting to the chief minister’s remarks, BJP spokesman and national general secretary of the party’s Yuva Morcha, Nikhil Anand, said: “He himself has politicised the issue and is now putting the blame on others to save his skin. If the IAS association of so many states, social organisations and the civil society are upset over it and filing public interest litigations in courts, he should address their grievances. He is trying to appease one vote bank. He should give details of all the 26 prisoners released…”

Meanwhile, Kumar also hit out at the BJP for unleashing a vitriolic attack on Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal over expenses incurred for renovation of the latter’s house.

“I don’t believe in individual criticism whether I am with anyone or not. He has won elections in Delhi. All those who win elections are confronted with such things,” he said.

Kumar had recently met Kejriwal as part of his efforts to reach out to opposition leaders ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year.