Anand Mohan Singh, a gangster-turned-politician, was on Thursday released from Saharsa jail in Patna after being behind bars for 15 years. The former Member of Parliament from Bihar was serving a life sentence in a three-decade-old case in connection to an IAS officer’s murder. The remission order in his jail sentence came after the Bihar government’s decision to amend the prison rules last week.
Born to an upper-caste Rajput family in Saharsa district of North Bihar’s Kosi region, Anand Mohan Singh is the grandson of Ram Bahadur Singh Tomar, who fought for India’s freedom struggle. He is often dubbed as ‘Bahubali’, a term used in the Hindi heartland to describe people with muscle power.
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Mohan’s name was synonymous with terror in the poverty-ridden Saharsa-Supaul belt of Bihar. He was a notorious gangster in the region and faced several criminal cases.
It was during his college years that he got involved in the Sampoorna Kranti movement of Jayaprakash Narayan, dropped out in 1974, and joined politics. In 1990, he gained recognition when he was elected to the Bihar assembly from the Hamshihi constituency on a Janata Dal ticket.
However, due to differences with Lalu Prasad Yadav, also in the Janata Dal at the time, who championed the backward class vote bank, Singh left the party and formed his own, called the Bihar’s People Party (BPP).
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G Krishnaiah murder case
G Krishnaiah was a 1985 batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre who was serving as the district magistrate (DM) of Gopalganj at the time. Born and brought up in present-day Telangana, Krishnaiah, 37 at the time of his death, belonged to a Dalit family.
On 5 December 1994, Krishnaiah was returning to Gopalganj when his car was confronted by a procession in Muzaffarpur in Bihar of a funeral cortege for the BPP member and gangster, Chhotan Shukla. A few politicians, including Singh, were a part of the procession. The sight of a government vehicle had infuriated the crowd, according to media reports. Krishnaiah was dragged out of his car and beaten to death.
Reports say that Anand Mohan, who gave a fiery speech earlier, allegedly instigated the mob to lynch the IAS officer.
In 2007, Anand Mohan and five other politicians, including his wife Lovely Anand, were convicted for their role in the 1994 murder. Anand was awarded a death sentence by a trial court. However, the Patna high court commuted it to life imprisonment in December 2008, after an appeal.
Mohan challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court but got no relief and had been in jail since 2007. He was briefly on parole to attend his son and MLA Chetan Anand's engagement when he was released.
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Freeing of the gangster-politician
On April 10, the Nitish Kumar government amended the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012, removing a clause that said those convicted for murder of a public servant on duty could not be given remission of their jail term.
On April 24, Bihar’s law department issued a notification ordering the release of Anand Mohan and 26 other prisoners. According to a Hindustan Times report, the decision was taken for the release of prisoners who had served an actual sentence of 14 years or a sentence of 20 years with remission.
Critics claim this was done to help release Mohan.
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The move has sparked political controversy with the coalition government facing criticism from the opposition. BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said Kumar has "sacrificed law to stay in power" with support from ally RJD.
Krishnaiah's widow too has expressed disappointment over the state government's decision to release Singh.
Meanwhile, Anand Mohan Singh refused to comment on the opposition to his release. “I offer my salutations (pranam) to all people, be it Krishnaiah's wife or the IAS Officers' Association. I do not want to say anything at this moment. I will say whatever I have to say when I come out,” he had told reporters in Patna.
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(With PTI inputs)
