The Supreme Court today sentenced Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former Member of Parliament (MP) Prabhunath Singh to life imprisonment in a double murder case of 1995. 

The SC’s order comes days after it reversed his acquittal. Now,it said it was a result of the failure of the state machinery and trial court to ensure a fair trial. 

A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, AS Oka, and Vikram Nath also directed Singh and the Bihar government to pay ₹10 lakh each and separately to the families of the two deceased victims and ₹5 lakh each to an injured victim in the case. 

Singh was produced virtually from the Hazaribagh jail in Jharkhand where he is presently undergoing life imprisonment in another murder case. 

A trial court in 2017 found him guilty in connection with the 1995 murder of legislator Ashok Singh, who defeated the former MP in the 1995 Bihar assembly poll. 

Prabhunath Singh had threatened to eliminate him within 90 days of the election results.

 

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