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Murder convict former MP walks out of prison in Bihar
Mohan’s release has been met with outrage, not just among parties opposed to Bihar’s ruling dispensation, but also IAS officers and civil society.
Patna
The Bihar government sought to defend the release of politician Anand Mohan (of the now defunct Bihar People’s Party), sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a young Dalit officer of the Indian Administrative Service and fielded Bihar chief secretary Amir Subhani in a press conference where the officer said the release was based on “legal provisions”.
Mohan’s release has been met with outrage, not just among parties opposed to Bihar’s ruling dispensation, but also IAS officers and civil society. Some analysts have likened it to the Gujarat government’s release of the gang rapists and murderers in the Bilkis Bano case.
But Subhani sought to pass of the relase as business-as-usual.
“He was released after recommendation through proper channel and compliance to basic conditions. Anand Mohan spent 15 years nine months and 25 days in jail. With remission, he has completed a sentence of 22 years and 13 days. It (the release) cannot be given political colour as under law there is no separate category or special facility for an IAS officer,” Subhani said.
Mohan walked out of Saharsa jail at 4 am.
The chief secretary also tried to explain a key change that allowed Mohan’s release as the government’s effort to treat people the same. The government does not differentiate between a common man and a government servant, he said. On April 10, Bihar’s home department notified the change in the rule 481 (1-a) of the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012 on the remission of sentences by deleting the phrase “or murder of a government servant on duty”. Without the change, anyone sentenced for the murder of a “government servant on duty” was not eligible for remission.
Interestingly, the phrase was added in 2012 by the then Nitish Kumar-led government. And it is an RJD-led coalition government that has now removed it.
Subhani said he was not aware if any such clause existed in any other state or not.
A leader close to Anand Mohan said that the fact that a public interest litigation (PIL) has been lodged on the issue in the Patna High Court, and the controversy over the release may have prompted the predawn release.
The person who filed the PIL termed the change in rules facilitating Mohan’s release “arbitrary and unfair”.
“What is the purpose of any such amendment which is not in the public interest? Public servants were not consulted, those who were affected were not consulted, so it is not in public interest. This amendment is arbitrary and it is unfair,” said Alka Verma, a lawyer who filed the PIL petition.
The chief secretary insisted in the conference that due process had been followed. “The committee makes recommendations about eligible persons and it is legally vetted before taking the decision on release. In the last six years, 22 meetings were held and the case of 1161 prisoners was taken up. Out of that, 698 were released. Central guidelines are followed for the release of prisoners on August 15, January 26 and October 2,” Subhani added.
The gangster-turned-politician was on a 15-day parole to attend the engagement ceremony of his son Chetan Anand, and returned to prison on April 26. He was then released at 4 am on April 27.
On Wednesday, the Bihar prisons department released around 14 convicts from various jails. Along with Anand Mohan, a total of 26 other prisoners got relief from the prison manual amendment. Mohan’s release is widely seen as a move aimed at political gains.
Mohan himself has already made it clear that he wishes to be politically active.
Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi said that the government is trying to defend the indefensible. “The government has changed a clause in the prison manual to set free a person who was held guilty by the Supreme Court, while it has no sensitivity to set free innocent poor, Dalits and extremely backward class languishing in jail under the failed prohibition law.”
Mohan incited a mob accompanying the cortege of a Bihar People’s Party leader to lynch a young Dalit IAS officer on December 5, 1994 at Muzaffarpur. According to the probe, Mohan instigated a mob that dragged Krishnaiah out of his official car and killed him.
Krishnaiah, a 1985-batch IAS officer, hailed from Mahbubnagar in present-day Telangana.
Following an investigation, Mohan was sentenced to death by a trial court in 2007. However, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the Patna high court a year later. The top court turned down his plea.
Mohan has the dubious record of being the first Indian politician to be sentenced to death. He is a leader of the Rajput community and came into prominence in 1978 in a protest against then-Prime Minister Morarji Desai .
