Anand Mohan gets death sentence for IAS officer's lynching

Former Lok Sabha MP and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader Anand Mohan Singh was Wednesday sentenced to death with two other politicians for the brutal 1994 lynching of an upright IAS officer while his ex-MP wife Lovely Anand was jailed for life for the same crime.

Thirteen years after a mob led by the husband-wife duo shot and then stoned to death a bleeding G. Krishnaiya, the Gopalganj district magistrate, on a national highway, a Patna court pronounced the much-awaited verdict.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ramshreshta Rai awarded death sentence to Anand Mohan Singh, founder leader of the Bihar People's Party (BPP) who later joined Bihar's ruling JD-U, as well as former Bihar minister Akhlaq Ahmad, now a leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and Arun Kumar, formerly with BPP.

The court also gave life imprisonment to four politicians, including former Lok Sabha MP Lovely Anand, a JD-U leader and wife of Anand Mohan, along with Munna Shukla, a JD-U legislator from Lalganj, and Shashi Shekhar Thakur and Harendra Kumar, who lost the last Lok Sabha election as a JD-U candidate.

The court found Anand Mohan Singh and the others guilty under Sections 302, 307, 147, and 427 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

All the seven politicians were taken into custody and sent to Beur jail.

Krishnaiya, a 1985 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, was shot at and then stoned by a mob near Khaabra village on National Highway 28 on Dec 5, 1994 when he was returning to Gopalganj from Hajipur via Muzaffarpur after attending an official meeting.

Krishnaiya was from a very poor family in Andhra Pradesh. His father used to be a labourer.

According to the police, Krishnaiya's vehicle was intercepted by a mob led by Anand Mohan Singh, then chief of BPP. His wife Lovely Anand, Munna Shukla and Akhlaq Ahmad were also part of the mob, which comprised mainly armed henchmen and supporters of Anand Mohan Singh.

The mob was protesting the killing of former BPP leader Kaushalendra Shukla alias Chhotan Shukla.

Krishnaiya, whose predecessor had also been killed by a bomb, was first shot. The officer began to bleed but did not die. Anand Mohan Singh's supporters then dragged him out of the vehicle and mercilessly stoned him to death.

The brutal killing of an IAS officer - watched by hundreds of people - instantly earned notoriety for Anand Mohan Singh although he was already a feared man in the region that he considered his bastion.

Anand Mohan Singh was arrested and jailed for the murder. But he contested the 1996 parliamentary election from prison - and won. He then secured bail to attend parliament. He was re-elected in 1998 but lost the 1999 election.

Anand Mohan Singh formed the Krantikari Samajwadi Sena in 1980 but lost the Lok Sabha election that year. He became a Janata Dal legislator in 1990.

The next year, he was accused of killing an independent candidate from Madhepura. He formed the BPP in 1993 but failed to win from any of the three assembly seats he contested in 1995.

But he entered the Lok Sabha in 1996 from Sheohar. He won the seat again in 1998 but lost to Anwarul Haque in 1999.

Anand Mohan Singh and Munna Shukla are facing several criminal cases, including those related to murder, attempt to murder, extortion and abduction, in various courts.

Anand Mohan Singh's name spelt terror in the Saharsa-Supaul belt while Shukla is feared in the Vaishali-Muzaffarpur belt of north Bihar. (IANS)

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