Convicted for life, after a feud to death: The story of Munna Shukla, a rival, and Bihar politics

Whether this is the end of the road for Shukla – who has survived other convictions, including of murder, while making strides in politics – is another matter, however.

The killing of Brijbihari Prasad in June 1998, for which Shukla stands convicted, had been sensational, with the then ruling RJD leader gunned down at Patna’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences. In 1999, the case was transferred to the CBI. Ten years later, a Patna trial court sentenced Shukla and five others to life terms.

In October last year, the Supreme Court convicted Munna and Mantu Tiwari, another Bihar politician, and gave them life, while giving the other accused the benefit of doubt. In its Thursday order, the Court said it did not find “any good ground and reason to review” the October judgment.

Shukla was also convicted in another high-profile case, the 1994 lynching of then Gopalganj DM G Krishnaiah. In 2008, the Patna High Court acquitted him and five others, while commuted the death sentence given to former MP Anand Mohan in the case to life. Anand Mohan was given remission in 2023 and released from jail. Krishnaiah’s wife challenged the remission in the Supreme Court, where the matter is pending.

The Shuklas

It was from Lalganj, Vaishali, in the 1970s that the story of the Shukla brothers – Chhotan, Bhutkun and Munna – began. The Bhumihar strongmen started off as petty contractors, which is how they came in contact with Prasad, a contractor from Motihari belonging to the OBC community.

A Muzaffarpur-based journalist recalls: “There was so much camaraderie between Brijbihari Prasad and the Shuklas at one stage that Prasad’s wife Rama Devi would tie a rakhi to the eldest of the Shukla brothers, Chhotan, on Rakshabandhan.”

Soon, the Shuklas’ renown spread, as they ran up a list of allegations, particularly of extortion, and later, moved into politics. The brothers’ expanding interests and muscle power brought them into conflict with Prasad, who too had graduated to politics after his business took off on the strength of government contracts. By 1982, the Shuklas and Prasad were officially at war.

A retired police officer, who once served in Muzaffarpur, said: “They targeted each other’s supporters, resulting in several killings between 1983 and 1985. While the two groups were suspected to have a hand, no FIRs were filed against either side.”

According to the former police officer, there was still peace as long as both Chhotan and Prasad enjoyed the patronage of influential Congress leader Raghunath Pandey, who was the Muzaffarpur MLA from 1985 to 2000. “But then Prasad tried to defy Pandey, and Chhotan emerged as the latter’s favourite.”

With Pandey’s backing, Chhotan went about securing the support of most of the prominent upper caste leaders, particularly Hemant Shahi, the son of former minister and Bhumihar Congress leader L P Shahi. By 1990, Chhotan moved his attention full-time to politics, leaving the control of contracts to Bhutkun.

A cycle of violence

The thorn in the Shuklas’ side, however, remained Prasad – who, having fallen out of favour with Pandey, found a benefactor in the RJD. Getting a jump over the Shuklas, he became an MLA and a minister in 1990 in the Lalu Prasad government. He also grew close to Begusarai muscleman Ashok Sharma a.k.a Ashok Samrat, a Bhumihar.

This triggered a fresh round of turf war as, bolstered by power, Prasad tried to curb the Shukla brothers’ influence. The escalating cycle of violence culminated in Chhotan’s killing in 1994. Police made hardly any headway in the murder, finally filing a closure report in 2020.

Chhotan’s death meant Bhutkun took over the Shukla family reins. In 1994, he was named along with younger brother Munna in the lynching of G Krishnaiah.

Police officers say that Chhotan evaded them by remaining confined largely to his village Khanjahachak, which was surrounded by rivers from three sides while, on the fourth, there was an escape route to Uttar Pradesh via Saran.

In March 1997, Prasad’s close aide Onkar Singh was killed, with the hand of the Shuklas suspected in it.

Months later, in October 1997, Bhutkun was killed by his own bodyguard. Officers say the bodyguard had been planted by his rivals back in 1995, and gained Bhutkun’s confidence over the next two years. The bodyguard was never caught, and Bhutkun’s killing too remained unsolved.

Eight months later, on June 13, 1998, Munna allegedly struck back, getting Prasad at the Patna hospital where he was admitted due to several ailments. Apart from Munna, police booked UP’s Sriprakash Shukla, another known mafia don, and politicians Rajan Tiwari and Suraj Bhan, along with six others in Prasad’s killing.

Sriprakash was killed in September 1998. In 2009, a Patna court sentenced all the others accused to life. In July 2014, the Patna High Court acquitted them.

Politics as battleground

The coming together of the upper-caste Rajputs and Bhumihars, who would make up about 8% of the state’s population, could be a threat to the RJD politics. Lalu had a taste of it when the Bihar People’s Party, formed by Anand Mohan, fielded Chhotan’s widow Kiran Shukla from the Kesaria Assembly seat in the 1995 polls.

She lost though to CPI OBC candidate, Yamuna Yadav.

In 2005, the Shuklas made a fresh foray into politics, when Munna contested on the ticket of RJD rival JD(U) from the Lalganj Assembly seat and won. After his conviction in 2009, Munna’s wife Annu contested from the seat as an Independent in 2010 – and retained it.

As is the way of politics, things have come full circle, with Munna now with the RJD – the party he was pitted against all these years. Last year, before the Supreme Court conviction came, he contested the Lok Sabha polls from Vaishali as RJD nominee against the LJP (Ramvilas)’s Veena Devi, but lost.

In the Assembly elections due this year, Munna was hopeful of getting a ticket again, for either himself or wife Annu, from Lalganj. The seat incidentally is represented by the RJD’s Sanjay Kumar Singh currently.

On the other side, Prasad’s wife Rama Devi is also well-entrenched in politics, having won as the Sheohar MP thrice, in 2009, 2014 and 2019, from the BJP. In last year’s Lok Sabha elections, Rama was denied a ticket from Sheohar, with the nomination going to BJP ally JD(U)’s Lovely Anand, who won. Lovely Anand, incidentally, is the wife of Anand Mohan.

RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari indicated the turf war may continue – at least in politics. “What can one say about the Supreme Court’s verdict? Munna Shukla will explore more legal options,” Tiwari said.