“Original records with regard to remission to Respondent-4 (Anand Mohan) by order dated April 10, 2023, be placed before the court”.

This is the order passed by the Supreme Court on Friday, directing the Bihar government (led by CM Nitish Kumar )to produce complete original records with regard to the remission granted to former MP Anand Mohan, who was serving a life term in the 1994 murder case of then Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala told advocate Manish Kumar, appearing for the Bihar government, that no further adjournment will be granted in the case and directed him to place the complete records for the perusal of the court.

The top court had listed the plea filed by the wife of the slain IAS officer challenging the release of Mohan on August 8.

Notably, Kumar had sought some time to file a reply to the plea. The apex court looked the other way.

Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Uma Krishnaiah, the wife of the slain ISS officer, said the state government has changed the policy retrospectively and released him in the case.

Luthra then urged the bench to direct the state to place entire records of criminal antecedents of Mohan and sought the matter to be listed in the month of August.

The bench recorded that counsel for the state government and Mohan have appeared before it and said no further adjournments will be granted.

Mohan’s name had figured in a list of more than 20 prisoners who were ordered to be set free by a notification issued by the state’s law department as they had spent more than 14 years behind bars.

The remission of his sentence followed an April 10 amendment to the Bihar Prison Manual by the Nitish Kumar government whereby the restriction on early release of those involved in the killing of a public servant on duty was done away with.

This was done, said many critics, justice to facilitate the release of Mohan, a Rajput strongman, who could add “votes” to the ruling JD(U) and RJD government led by Nitish Kumar in its fight against the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2024. 

The IAS officer Krishnaiah, who hailed from Telangana, was beaten to death by a mob in 1994 when his vehicle tried to overtake the funeral procession of gangster Chhotan Shukla in Muzaffarpur in the district. Police records on the basis of which he was convicted showed that Mohan, then an MLA, was leading the procession.

-----------------------------Advertisement------------------------------------Abua Awas Yojna 

must read