NEW DELHI: In a big setback to former MP and senior Bihar politician Prabhunath Singh, the Supreme Court on Friday sentenced him to life imprisonment in connection with the 1995 double murder case. The SC ruling came a week after the top court convicted the Bihar politician in the case, overturning the orders of the trial court and the Patna High Court acquitting him.


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The apex court further directed the state government and the accused to award Rs 10 lakh each as compensation for the families of both the deceased and 5 lakhs for the injured. The top court also imposed a sentence of seven years imprisonment on Prabhunath Singh for the offence of attempt to murder under Section 307 IPC.


A bench of Justices S K Kaul, AS Oka and Vikram Nath had earlier held Singh guilty of culpable homicide amounting to murder for killing Daroga Rai and Rajendra Rai in March 1995 in Chhapra village of Bihar.


The bench also directed the state Home Secretary and DGP “to ensure that Singh is ''taken into custody forthwith and produced before” it on September 1 when it will hear the matter on the quantum of sentence to be imposed.


The Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court-III, Patna had by order dated October 24, 2008, acquitted Singh. This was upheld by the Patna High Court on December 2, 2021. Singh had allegedly opened fire on the victims on learning that they had voted for the Janata Dal. The former MP was then contesting as a candidate of the Bihar People’s Party.


Prabhunath Singh is currently serving a life term in another murder case. He, along with his two brothers, was 2sentenced to life in prison in 2017 after a two-decade trial in the murder of former Janata Dal lawmaker Ashok Singh in 1995. Ashok Singh's wife had asked for the trial to be held on a neutral ground in Jharkhand, instead of Bihar.


Ashok Singh had defeated Prabhunath Singh in the Bihar assembly polls in 1995. He was killed in a blast at his official home in Patna soon after. Prabhunath Singh had allegedly said that Ashok Singh would be eliminated within 90 days of the election.