The Hindu : Front Page : Death for former MP in lynching case

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 04, 2007
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Death for former MP in lynching case

K. Balchand

PATNA: The Patna District and Sessions Court on Wednesday awarded capital punishment to a former MP and two former legislators for lynching Gopalganj District Magistrate G. Krishnaiah in Muzaffarpur district almost 13 years ago.

Additional District Judge (1) R.K. Rai, in his 120-page judgment, pronounced the sentence on the former MP and Janata Dal (United) leader Anand Mohan, and the former legislators Arun Kumar Singh and Akhlaq Ahmed, who is now with the RJD.

Life term for wife

Life sentences were given to the former Vaishali MP and Anand Mohan’s wife Lovely Anand; JD(U) MLA from Lalganj Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla; JD(U) leader Harendra Kumar Shahi; and Shashi Shekhar Thakur.

On Monday, the court held the seven guilty of murdering the 1985 batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, who hailed from Andhra Pradesh. The judge found them guilty of murder, attempt to murder and instigating murder, among other charges. He acquitted 29 others.

On December 5, 1994, Krishnaiah ran into a funeral procession of alleged gangster Chottan Shukla, brother of Vijay Kumar Shukla.

A mob, leading the procession, ignored Krishnaiah’s pleas that he was the District Magistrate of Gopalganj and not of Muzaffarpur, where Chottan Shukla was gunned down along with four others a day earlier. The mob, already excited by heated speeches of its leaders, stoned and beat up Krishnaiah. At an instigation to shoot the official dead, someone fired shots at him.

Rarest of rare cases

The judge said it was one of the rarest of rare cases, in which a mob targeted an official as he happened to symbolise the government.

The court slapped a fine of Rs.25,000 on each of the seven convicts. Half of the total sum should be given to Uma, wife of Krishnaiah.

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