Supreme Court gives life term to former RJD MP for killing 2 who voted against him

Saying it has never seen a case like this before, the Supreme Court on Friday sentenced former RJD MP Prabhunath Singh to life term for shooting to death two persons for voting against him in 1995.

The top court had held him guilty on August 18, by reversing his acquittal by the trial court as well as the High Court, saying this case was an exceptionally painful episode of our criminal justice system.

Taking up the matter on point of sentence, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath said, "We have never seen a case like this before."

After hearing senior advocates A M Singhvi, and R Basanth on behalf of Singh and a counsel for victim Harendra Rai, the bench said, "There are only two options - life term or death sentence."

The court decided to impose life term and awarded Rs 10 compensation each to the family of two deceased Rajendra Rai, 18, and Daroga Rai, 47, and Rs 5 lakh to the injured witness.

Singh is undergoing life term in another murder case.

On August 18, the top court had allowed the appeal filed by victim Harendra Rai against the Patna High Court's judgement of December 2, 2021 which had upheld the trial court's decision of October 24, 2008, acquitting Singh and six others of all the charges related to killing the two near a polling booth in Chhapra.

"We have noticed that the three main stakeholders in a criminal trial, namely the Investigating Officer that is the part of the police of the state of Bihar, the Public Prosecutor, and the Judiciary, have all utterly failed to keep up their respective duties and responsibilities cast upon them," the bench had then said.

The bench had said the High Court and the trial court had failed to notice the sensitivity and intricacies of the case involving the then ruling party leader who mustered full support of the administration and prosecution and won over almost all the witnesses.

It had noted a "clear and deliberate lapse" as well as "tainted role" by the prosecution in not producing the investigating officer and other witnesses.

The bench had relied upon a statement of injured Rajendra Rai, who subsequently died of gunshot injuries, saying it is to be read as a dying declaration. It had also lent credence of a report prepared by the HC judge's inspecting judge after the prime witnesses were kidnapped, while they were on way to depose in the matter.