SC upholds life term for Anand Mohan

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the life sentence awarded to former Lok Sabha member Anand Mohan Singh for instigating a mob to kill erstwhile Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah in 1994,but acquitted all other six accused,including his wife Lovely Anand.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the life sentence awarded to former Lok Sabha member Anand Mohan Singh for instigating a mob to kill erstwhile Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah in 1994,but acquitted all other six accused,including his wife Lovely Anand.

A bench headed by Justice A K Patnaik also dismissed Bihar governments appeal for enhancing Singhs sentence to death penalty and challenging acquittal of other accused in the case. We do not find any merit in either the appeal of A-1 (Anand Mohan Singh) or the appeals of the State and we,accordingly,dismiss all the criminal appeals, the bench said.

The cross appeals were filed against the December 2008 verdict of the Patna High Court,which had commuted Singhs death penalty,awarded by the trial court,to life sentence and acquitted all others due to lack of evidence.

Story continues below this ad

Besides Lovely Anand,former state minister Akhlaq Ahmed,former MLA Arun Kumar,MLA (JD-U) from Lalganj Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla,Shashi Shekhar and Harendra Kumar were acquitted.

Singh,a gangster-turned-politician from Bihar who was the leader of the now defunct Bihar Peoples Party,was accused of inciting a mob accompanying the cortege of a party leader to lynch Krishnaiah on December 5,1994.

Additional District and Sessions Judge R S Rai had on October 3,2007 awarded death sentence to Singh,Ahmed and Arun Kumar and life imprisonment to Lovely Anand,Munna Shukla,Shashi Shekhar and Harendra Kumar.

The High Court,however,had commuted Singhs death penalty and acquitted all other accused.