Supreme Court notice to Bihar over Anand Mohan Singh's release

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Bihar government on a plea filed by Telugu Umadevi Krishnaiah, wife of IAS officer G Krishnaiah, challenging premature release of former Bihar MP Anand Mohan, who was sentenced to life term.

Mohan was sentenced to life term after being held guilty for leading a mob which lynched a Gopalganj district Magistrate in 1994.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and J K Maheshwari sought a response from the state government as senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the petitioner, termed the whole episode as "unfortunate".

The court fixed the matter for consideration next week.

The petitioner questioned the decision of the Nitish Kumar government to amend the prison rules and subsequent release of Mohan on April 24 and termed it "arbitrary, unreasonable and against public policy and the idea of a welfare state". The development has also caused demoralisation of the civil servants in the state, she claimed.

Her plea contended that the Bihar government has specially brought about an amendment on April 10, 2023 to the Bihar Prison Manual with retrospective effect, in order to ensure that convict Mohan be granted benefit of remission.

"The said amendment of April 10, 2023 is against the notification of December 10, 2002 as well as against the public policy and has resulted in demoralisation of the civil servants in the state," it said.

The plea also stated that life imprisonment, when awarded as a substitute for death penalty, has to be carried out strictly as directed by the court and it would be beyond the application of remission.

"The convict here is a politically influential person and has committed the murder of a serving IAS Officer, while himself being an MLA. He enjoys political support and has several criminal cases pending against him," it also claimed.

The plea also said the grant of remission to Mohan is in contravention of the notification of December 10, 2002 which was applicable on the date of conviction i.e. On October 05, 2007.

"Therefore, order dated 24.04.2023 by the State of Bihar is violation of notification dated 10.12.2002 as well as in contravention of judgments of the apex court," it said.

The plea submitted that life imprisonment handed down to the gangster-turned- politician meant incarceration for his entire natural course of life as in his case, he was awarded death penalty on October 5, 2007 by the trial court which was commuted to rigorous life imprisonment by the Patna High Court on December 10, 2008 and confirmed by the Supreme Court on July 10, 2012.

Mohan was released from Saharsa jail on April 27 morning.

In the writ petition, the wife of the slain officer also pointed out the apex court has consistently held that the rules of remission applicable at the time of conviction must be considered for deciding the application of pre-mature release. Thus, the rules as applicable at the time of petitioner’s conviction in 2007 would be applicable for considering his application for remission.

Her plea also referred to Rule 481(1)(c) of Bihar Prison Manual, 2012, which provided that convicts whose death sentence has been commuted to life sentence will be eligible for consideration of remission only after completion of 20 years of sentence.

"In the present case, Mohan has served only 14 years of incarceration and therefore, he is not eligible to be considered for remission as per rule," it said.

A 1985-batch IAS officer Krishnaiah hailed from Telangana. He was 37-year-old and was posted as district magistrate of Gopalganj. He was beaten to death by a mob in 1994 when his vehicle tried to overtake the funeral procession of gangster Chhotan Shukla in Muzaffarpur district.