Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a plea by former Lok Sabha MP Anand Mohan against his conviction and life sentence in the 1994 murder of erstwhile Gopalganj Dist Magistrate G Krishnaiah.
A bench of justices A K Patnaik and Madan B Lokur also rejected an appeal by the Bihar government that sought enhancement of Anand Mohan's punishment to death sentence and its appeals against acquittal of all other accused including his wife Lovely Anand in the case.
The cross appeals were filed against the December 2008 verdict of the Patna High Court, which had commuted Anand Mohan's death penalty, awarded by the trial court, to life sentence and had acquitted all others due to lack of evidence.
Besides Lovely Anand, former state 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 death sentence to Mohan, Ahmed and Arun Kumar and life imprisonment to Lovely Anand, Munna Shukla, Shashi Shekhar and Harendra Kumar.
Anand Mohan, who was the leader of the then Bihar People's Party (BPP) at the time of the murder, and his wife were accused of inciting a mob to lynch Krishnaiah. The BPP is now defunct.
Krishnaiah was lynched by a mob accompanying the cortege of a BPP leader Chotan Shukla on December 5, 1994. The officer was pulled out of a car, beaten up mercilessly and then shot dead.
With PTI inputs
First Published: Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 10:48