Slain IAS officer G. Krishnaiah’s wife Uma Devi on Tuesday said that she has decided to move the Supreme Court against the Bihar government’s decision to release muscleman and former Lok Sabha member Anand Mohan Singh from jail.
Singh was convicted in the murder case and has been serving a life term.
“IAS officers of the 1985 batch, to which my husband also belonged, have contacted me. They have offered to challenge the Bihar government’s decision in the Supreme Court. I have agreed to it. Releasing Anand Mohan for political benefits is not a good decision and it has left me very sad,” Uma told reporters.
“I appeal to Nitish Kumar not to release Singh. He should think about the public instead of political benefits. Releasing him will be like encouraging criminals,” Uma added.
Krishnaiah, the then Gopalganj district magistrate, was killed by a mob near Muzaffarpur on December 5, 1994, while he was returning to his workplace after attending a government meeting in Patna.
The mob was a part of the funeral procession of gangster Chhotan Shukla and Singh was also there. He was accused of instigating the people to attack Krishnaiah. A local court convicted him in October 2007 and handed him the death sentence, which was later commuted to life imprisonment by Patna High Court.
Singh, 75, is considered a powerful leader of the Rajput community. His wife Lovely Anand has also been a Lok Sabha member and his son Chetan Anand is currently a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA. Singh is currently out on parole to attend his son’s wedding next month.
Sources in the government say that chief minister Nitish Kumar facilitated Singh’s release because of political exigency. In fact, he had announced at a public meeting that the government was taking steps to release him.
Subsequently, the state cabinet decided to tweak the Bihar Prison Manual and drop its rule 481(1)(a) that forbade the early release of people convicted of killing a public servant.
Accordingly, the state home department, which comes under Nitish, silently issued a notification announcing the striking down of the rule.
