RJD leader Prabhunath Singh gets life imprisonment in 1995 double murder case

The Supreme Court on Friday sentenced Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former member of Parliament (MP) Prabhunath Singh to life imprisonment in a double murder case of 1995, days after it reversed his trail court verdict acquitting him.

The court also directed Singh and the Bihar government to pay ₹10 lakh each to the families of the two deceased victims and ₹5 lakh to an injured victim in the case which involved the killing of two people on the day of polling for assembly elections in Chapra in Saran district in March 1995. The two were shot dead because they did not vote as per Singh’s suggestion.

A bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had convicted Singh, also a former MLA, for the murders of Daroga Rai and Rajendra Rai and for attempting to kill a woman. The apex court overturned the orders of the trial court and Patna high court, observing that it was dealing with an “exceptionally painful episode of our criminal justice system”.

It is rare, if not unprecedented, for the Supreme Court, which is the top-most appellate court in the country, to convict a person. It usually upholds or rejects the conviction of a person for an offence on appeal.

A trial court in December 2008 acquitted Prabhunath Singh citing lack of evidence and the Patna high court later upheld the acquittal in 2012. Rajendra Rai’s brother challenged the acquittal in the Supreme Court.

"In the case with which we are dealing, there is no iota of doubt that the accused-respondent no.2 (Singh) was instrumental in making all possible efforts to wipe out the evidence against him and the prosecution machinery as also the presiding officer of the trial court, if we may say so, was used as a tool of his highhandedness," the bench said in its 143-page judgement.

"In the present case, the FIR, being a public document and a dying declaration of the informant, is the foundation of the entire prosecution case. However, in the present matter, we have to find out the 'evidence of those persons who can vouchsafe for the truth of the facts in issue,” the bench said.

“We set aside the impugned order of the Patna high court and convict respondent no 2...Prabhunath Singh, under Section 302 (murder) for the murders of Daroga Rai and Rajendra Rai. We direct the home secretary of...Bihar and the director general of police of the state to arrest Prabhunath Singh and produce him before this court in custody on the next date of hearing to be heard on [the] argument of [the] sentence,” said Justice Nath, reading out the operative part of the judgment.