Set to walk free, Anand Mohan cites release of Bilkis Bano’s convicts as BJP raises heat

A Rajput leader, Singh, who is out on parole for his legislator son Chetan Anand’s engagement, was awarded life sentence in the case involving the murder of the then district magistrate of Gopalganj, G Krishnaiah, a 1985-batch IAS officer, in Muzaffarpur on December 5, 1994. Singh has been in jail since 2007.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar and several of his cabinet colleagues attended the engagement function on Monday evening.

After remaining quiet on the matter for a long time, the BJP has fired the first salvo. Tagging the notification of the Bihar law department, BJP’s national information and technology department in-charge Amit Malviya made a direct attack on CM Nitish Kumar for “leaning on a criminal syndicate”.

“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…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 tweeted.

Though he got response on Twitter itself, with many accounts posting photographs of senior BJP leaders with Anand Mohan, BJP leaders in the state, who had so far maintained silence on the issue, got galvanised. Senior BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member Sushil Kumar Modi said the government had used Anand Mohan’s release to free many dreaded gangsters among the 27 so that “their services could be utilised in election”.

“The government has played a big game behind the curtains. It is a conspiracy to release gangsters in the name of Anand Mohan by issuing them good behaviour certificates. Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and others should answer if they are for it. Seven of the 27 to be released have been asked to report to the police station every month, as the government also has doubts. What is more, Nitish Kumar himself made the law in 2016 that those involved with the murder of a government servant would not be get the benefit of remission, which he has now amended. This has created fear among government servants,” he said.

JD-U president Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh also took to Twitter to respond to Malviya. “Now BJP has come in the open over release of Anand Mohan. Earlier Its ‘B’ team from UP was active. In Nitish 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 meant for certain class of prisoners. That distinction has been removed and BJP people have developed stomachache, as they believe in protecting own people and implicating opposition. Nitish Kumar neither implicates anyone nor protects anyone,” he said.

Anand Mohan himself also reacted to the accusations for the first time.

“In Gujarat also, some people were released and garlanded. Perhaps, that also happened under pressure of JD-U and the BJP,” he said, in an apparent reference to the Bilkis Bano gang-rape case convicts.

He said many in the BJP also held the opinion earlier that he had been wronged. “After all, only two families suffered — one of former MP Lovely Anand (his wife) and second the family of late G Krishnaiah. Others just watched,” he told media persons.

He said he would surrender his parole to complete formalities of his release. “Once I am free and the wedding engagements are over, I will sit with my people to decide the future course. Everyone wants freedom. I have served full sentence and the state government has gone by the legal provisions available. I am what I was,” he said.

Appreciating Nitish Kumar’s efforts for a united opposition, he said a strong government and a strong opposition was the basic need of a vibrant democracy. “There should not be hero worship. Ideology should be respected,” he said.

On former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati’s remark that the Nitish government decision was an an “anti-Dalit” move, he said he did not know her. “I have heard of Kalawati, but not about her. I have been in jail for over 15 years,” he said.

The sensational 1994 murder of IAS officer

G Krishnaiah, who hailed from present-day Telangana, was beaten to death by a mob in 1994 while his vehicle was passing through Muzaffarpur district.

Anand Mohan was present on the spot at the time of the killing, where he was part of the funeral procession of Chhotan Shukla, a dreaded gangster who was gunned down in Muzaffarpur town.

The sensational killing had acquired caste overtones in an era when Bihar was stirred by the Mandal wave.

While Shukla was an upper caste Bhumihar and Mohan, his sympathiser, is a Rajput, the alleged killers were said to be sympathisers of Brij Bihari Prasad, an OBC strongman who went on to become a minister in the Rabri Devi government but was ultimately gunned down while undergoing treatment at a Patna hospital a few years later.

Brij Bihari Prasad’s widow Rama Devi is currently a Lok Sabha member from BJP. This is her third term as a member of Parliament.

PTI