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BJP targets Nitish Kumar over Anand Mohan’s release, triggers row
A heated political debate ensued on Tuesday, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) targeting chief minister Nitish Kumar for ‘leaning on a criminal syndicate’
PATNA: A day after the Bihar government notified the release of 27 prisoners, including former lawmaker Anand Mohan Singh who was serving life sentence in the 1994 murder of an IAS officer, by amending the state’s prison manual, a heated political debate ensued on Tuesday, with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) targeting chief minister Nitish Kumar for “leaning on a criminal syndicate”.
On Monday evening, the Bihar law department issued a notification, stating that on the recommendation of the Bihar state sentence remission council, the “decision was taken for the release of prisoners having served actual sentence of 14 years or sentence of 20 years with remission.”
Tagging the notification in a tweet, BJP’s national information and technology department in-charge Amit Malviya launched a scathing attack on the Bihar chief minister.
“Shame on Nitish Kumar for capitulating to RJD’s sinister machinations. Bihar government had surreptitiously removed the “murderer of a government servant on duty” category of prisoners by amending the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012, paving the way for release of don-turned-RJD politician Anand Mohan, who was serving life term for murder of G Krishnaiah, a Dalit IAS officer…,” Malviya tweeted.
“Can someone who is leaning on a criminal syndicate, to hold on to power, be the face of India, even as opposition leader? Corruption, crime and bid to defend their shrinking political turf is the glue for India’s opposition, from Mamata Banerjee to Nitish Kumar, Kejriwal to KCR…,” he added.
On April 10, the Nitish Kumar government amended the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012, removing the “murder of a public servant on duty” clause from the list of cases for which remission of jail term cannot be considered, which helped Singh, a Rajput leader with considerable influence on his caste voters.
The gangster-turned-politician is currently out on parole to celebrate the engagement of his son Chetan Anand, a sitting legislator of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), an ally of Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), in the state. The chief minister, his deputy and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and several of their cabinet colleagues attended the function on the outskirts of Patna.
Singh was awarded life sentence in the murder case of then Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiah, a 1985-batch IAS officer from Mahbubnagar in present-day Telangana, on December 5, 1994 in Muzaffarpur. He has been in jail since 2007.
JD(U) national president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh hit back at the BJP, alleging the national party believed in protecting its own people and implicating opposition.
“Now the BJP has come in the open over release of Anand Mohan. Earlier, its ‘B’ team from UP (an indirect reference to Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati) was active,” the JD(U) chief tweeted in Hindi.
“In Nitish Kumar government, there is no difference between ‘aam’ (commoner) and ‘khas’ (special). Anand Mohan has served his full sentence and has got remission which he was not getting due to a clause, which was meant for certain class of prisoners. That distinction has been removed and the BJP people have developed stomachache, as they believe in protecting own people and implicating opposition. Nitish Kumar neither implicates anyone nor protects anyone,” he added.
Earlier, the former Uttar Pradesh CM had criticised the move to amend the Bihar prison manual, terming it a “pro-crime and anti-Dalit” work of Nitish Kumar.
Meanwhile, Anand Mohan Singh, who has indicated his return to active politics, expressed his gratitude towards Nitish Kumar.
“All these years, others have been mere spectators. The sufferers have been my wife Lovely and the family members of G Krishnaiah,” Singh told reporters. “I wonder if those who are making noise over my release from jail, have ever cared to wipe the tears of the family members of the slain IAS officer.”
On the Bihar government’s move, Singh made an indirect reference to the Bilkis Bano case, saying: “In Gujarat also, some people were released and garlanded. Perhaps, that also happened under pressure of the JD(U) and the RJD.”
He said he would surrender his parole to complete his formalities for release from the prison. “Once I am free and the wedding engagements (scheduled for May 3 in Dehradun) are over, I will sit with my people to decide the future course... I have served full sentence and the state government has gone by the legal provisions available,” Singh added.
Meanwhile, slain IAS officer G Krishnaiah’s wife Uma Devi expressed displeasure over the Bihar government’s decision to release the former Lok Sabha MP from jail.
“We are not happy… we feel it is wrong. There is caste politics in Bihar, he is a Rajput, so he will get Rajput votes. Otherwise, what is the need of releasing a criminal? He will be given an election ticket so that he can bring Rajput votes,” she was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
