Bihar govt refuses to share records with slain DM’s wife

Mohan was awarded life imprisonment for the murder of Krishnaiah, a young Dalit officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), in 1994

The Bihar government on Friday refused to share official records pertaining to a controversial decision granting remission to former Bihar MP Anand Mohan, who was serving a life term in connection with the murder of former Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiah, with the latter’s wife.

The Bihar government said the details cannot be shared with the deceased’s family as the file contained names of 97 convicts who were considered for the relief (HT Archives)

Opposing a request by Krishnaiah’s wife, Umadevi, in the Supreme Court, the government said the details cannot be shared with the deceased’s family as the file contained names of 97 convicts who were considered for the relief.

Opposing a request, by Umadevi, in the Supreme Court, state counsel and senior advocate Ranjit Kumar said: “I won’t share the details till the court examines it (files) first.”

He added that the state is willing to show the records only to the judges.

Mohan was awarded life imprisonment in connection with the murder of Krishnaiah, a young Dalit officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), in 1994.

The Bihar government, on April 24, notified his release by amending the state’s prison manual, sparking a political row in the state. The government amended the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012, on April 12 by removing the “murder of a public servant on duty” clause from the list of cases for which remission of jail term cannot be considered. The amendment helped Mohan, a Rajput leader with considerable influence on his caste voters, secure the premature release.

Umadevi later moved the top court against the decision.

Appearing for Umadevi, senior advocate Sidharth Luthra said: “This is no state secret. Let us have the benefit of seeing the remission records. We can file our response after going through the files.”

Luthra wondered what was so confidential in the file and said, “This shows the belligerence of the state.”

Kumar pointed out that the records contained details of 97 convicts who were being considered for an early release, along with Mohan, and said the petitioner can know if it is confidential or not if he applies for the same by filing a plea under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

“Are you suggesting that all 97 cases of premature release were for murder of a public servant on duty?,” a bench of justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Dutta asked the state government.

To this, Kumar said he did not have any exact figure.

Posting the matter to September 26, the bench told Luthra: “In the meantime, you can approach the state government with this request. Let us see what the state says.”