New Delhi, Oct 3 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Thursday convicted criminal-turned politician Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla and another person in the 1998 sensational murder case of former Bihar minister and RJD leader Brij Bihari Prasad at a hospital in Patna.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar and R Mahadevan partially set aside the Patna High Court verdict acquitting all the accused and asked convicts Munna Shukla, a former MLA, and Mantu Tiwari to surrender within 15 days.
The top court, however, gave benefit of doubt to five other accused, including former MP Surajbhan Singh, and upheld their acquittal as ordered by the high court in the case.
The murder of Brij Bihari Prasad, an influential OBC leader and husband of former BJP MP Rama Devi, by Gorakhpur-based gangster Sri Prakash Shukla who was later gunned down by Uttar Pradesh STF and others, had shaken the police of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
“The charge under section 302 (murder) read with section 34 of the IPC against Mantu Tiwari and Vijay Kumar Shukla @ Munna Shukla for the murders of Brij Bihari Prasad and Lakshmeshwar Sahu (bodyguard of Prasad) is proven and established beyond reasonable doubt,” the bench said.
It said that the charge under section 307 read with section 34 of the IPC against Munna Shukla and Mantu Tiwari for attempting to murder are also proven and established beyond reasonable doubt.
The bench directed both Shukla and Tiwari to undergo imprisonment for life with a fine of Rs 20,000 each under section 302 read with section 34 of the IPC, and in addition to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years with a fine of Rs 20,000 each under section 307 read with section 34 of the IPC.
“Both the sentences shall run concurrently…As default punishment was not imposed by the trial court, we direct that in case of non-payment of fine on each account, Mantu Tiwari and Vijay Kumar Shukla @ Munna Shukla shall undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months,” the bench said.
Directing both Shukla and Tiwari to surrender within two weeks to the concerned jail authorities or the court to serve the remainder of their respective sentences, the bench said in case of failure to surrender, the authorities shall take appropriate measures to arrest and detain them in accordance with law.
The top court, however, gave benefit of doubt to five other accused, including former MP Surajbhan Singh, and upheld their acquittal as ordered by the high court in the case.
“Insofar as Surajbhan Singh, Mukesh Singh, Lallan Singh, Ram Niranjan Chaudhary and Rajan Tiwari are concerned, we give them benefit of doubt and uphold their acquittal,” the bench said.
Two other accused — Bhupendra Nath Dubey and Captain Sunil Singh — have died during the pendency of the proceedings.
Mantu Tiwari is the nephew of late Bhupendra Nath Dubey, who was the brother of Devendra Nath Dubey, a political rival of Rama Devi.
Devendra Nath Dubey, who was contesting as Samajwadi Party candidate against RJD’s Rama Devi, was killed a day before the re-poll for the Motihari Lok Sabha constituency on February 23, 1998 and Brij Bihari Prasad and others were named as an accused in the case.
The top court relied on the testimony of three prosecution witnesses whose testimonies were discarded by the high court.
“Even if we completely exclude the testimony of Shashi Bhushan Singh, the depositions of Paras Nath Chaudhury, Mahanth Ashwani Das and, to some extent of Rama Devi and Amarendra Kumar Sinha with other evidence and material are conclusive enough to prove the charge against Mantu Tiwari and Vijay Kumar Shukla @ Munna Shukla,” the bench said.
The case was transferred to CBI on March 7, 1999 and the central agency had named former MP Surajbhan Singh and three others as conspirators of the crime.
It was alleged by the probe agency that a meeting had taken place in Beur Jail in Patna where Surajbhan Singh was incarcerated with Munna Shukla, Lallan Singh and Ram Niranjan Chaudhary before killing of Prasad on June 13, 1998.
The top court said that there was no concrete material to establish anything about the meeting.
“The telephone records indicating the exchange of calls between May 11, 1998 and June 11, 1998, as deposed by Rai Singh Khatri, do not substantively prove and establish the conspiracy charge in the absence of revelatory and weighty incriminating material,” the bench said on the call records relied by the CBI to establish conspiracy charge on Surajbhan Singh and others.
On July 24, 2014, the high court had acquitted all the accused giving benefit of doubt and set aside the trial court’s August 12, 2009 order convicting them and awarding all the accused life sentence.
Accused Sri Prakash Shukla alias Shiv Prakash Shukla, Sudhir Tripathi and Anuj Pratap were killed in an encounter by the Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh Police in September 1998.
According to the prosecution, on June 13, 1998, multiple armed men had gunned down Brij Bihari Prasad along with his bodyguard inside the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna, while he was taking a stroll.
He was admitted in the hospital for treatment, while in judicial custody as an accused in an alleged engineering college admission scam.
Some of the prosecution witnesses before the trial court had claimed in their deposition that the murder of Brij Bihari Prasad was a fallout of the killing of Chhotan Shukla, elder brother of Munna Shukla.
According to witnesses, Chhotan Shukla was killed on December 4, 1994 by the henchmen of Brij Bihari Prasad, while he was returning home after canvassing during assembly elections. PTI MNL MNL KVK KVK
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