Krishnaiah murder: Former MP's death row commuted to lifer

PATNA: In a major respite to former Lok Sabha MP Anand Mohan and six others convicted in the former Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiah murder case, the Patna High Court on Wednesday commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment and acquitted the others. A division bench comprising Justices Shiv Kirti Singh and S M Mafooz Alam converted the death sentence into life imprisonment. Six others, including Mohan's wife Lovely Anand, also a former Lok Sabha member, were acquitted for lack of evidence. "Since Mohan has been accused of inciting the mob to kill the victim and had not personally murdered him, the case does not fall in the category of rarest of rare cases and so his death sentence is converted into life imprisonment," the court said. With regard to six others convicted of murdering Krishnaiah in 1994, the bench said, "since the prosecution failed to establish the charges against the appellants beyond reasonable doubt, they stand acquitted." Besides Lovely Anand, Former minister Akhlaq Ahmed, former MLA Arun Kumar, MLA (JD-U) from Lalganj Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla, Shashi Shekhar and Harendra Kumar were acquitted. Mohan, former MP from Sheohar, was awarded life term under sections 302 (murder) and 109 (abetment of offence). Additional district and sessions judge R S Rai had, on October 3, 2007, awarded the death sentence to Mohan, Ahmed and Arun Kumar and life imprisonment to Lovely Anand, Munna Shukla, Shashi Shekhar and Harendra Kumar.