Slain Gopalganj DM’s wife moves SC over ex-MP Anand Mohan’s release

The wife of slain IAS officer G Krishnaiah, the then Gopalganj district magistrate who was killed in 1994 by a mob led by former Bihar lawmaker Anand Mohan, on Saturday moved the Supreme Court challenging the premature release of the gangster-turned-politician from prison.

A Rajput leader, Mohan was released from the Saharsa jail on April 27 early morning, days after the Nitish Kumar government on April 10 tweaked 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.

Mohan was awarded life sentence in the murder case of G Krishnaiah, a 1985-batch IAS officer from Mahbubnagar in present-day Telangana, on December 5, 1994 in Muzaffarpur. The IAS officer was lynched by a mob when his vehicle tried to overtake the funeral procession of gangster Chhotan Shukla. Mohan, then an MLA, was leading the procession.

A trial court in October 2007 pronounced death sentence for Mohan, which was commuted to life imprisonment by Patna high court in December 2008. He challenged it in the Supreme Court, but got no relief and remained in Saharsa jail since 2007.

Uma Krishnaiah, the wife of the slain IAS officer, in her petition has challenged both the April 10 amendment to the prison rules and the subsequent release of the former Bihar MP. The petition, filed through advocate Tanya Shree, prayed for stay of the two orders.

“Sentence of imprisonment for life given to a convict as a substitute for the death sentence must be viewed differently and segregated from the ordinary life imprisonment given as the sentence of first choice,” the petition said.

It added that the amendment has been brought to ensure benefit of remission to Mohan, who was among the 27 people granted premature release.

Speaking about the petition, advocate Tanya Shree said: “The decision of the state government has been assailed on the ground that it goes contrary to past decisions of the Supreme Court, which lay down that life sentence means the entire life. The state cannot mechanically release any prisoner at their whims and fancies after completion of 14 years.”

The petitioner challenged the circular issued by the Bihar home department (prisons) on April 10 amending Rule 481(1)(c) of the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012.

This rule, prior to amendment, required life convicts facing punishment for “murder of a public servant on duty” to be considered for premature release under Section 433A (relating to the state’s remission policy) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) after completion of 20 years (including remission). The April 10 amendment excluded this category of offence from the requirement of 20 years sentence and placed it under the general rule of 14 years.

The Bihar government’s move that allowed the early release of Mohan, who has a dubious record of being the first Indian politician to be sentenced for life imprisonment, has been widely criticised not only by parties opposed to Mahagathbandhan, but also civil servants.

The petition said the state government order was contrary to the past apex court decisions applicable to remission.

These include conduct of prisoner in jail, past criminal antecedents, socio-economic conditions, larger public good, propensity to commit future crimes.

“The release has been purely on extraneous considerations,” said the petitioner’s lawyer. “The relevant factors to be examined for premature release have not been considered.”

The petition said that the convict is a politically influential person and has committed the murder of a serving IAS officer while himself being an MLA at the time of the incident.