New Delhi: The Supreme Court is set to hear Friday the petition of IAS officer G.Krishnaiah’s wife in which she has challenged the premature release of politician Anand Mohan from prison.
On 8 May, the top court had issued a notice to the Bihar government and the gangster-turned-politician, asking them to respond to Uma Krishnaiah’s plea within two weeks.
Krishnaiah, the then District Magistrate of Gopalganj, was lynched by a mob led by Anand Mohan on 5 December, 1994.
The Bihar government had released Anand Mohan, who was serving a life term for Krishnaiah’s murder, after amending its jail manual to allow remission to convicts who have completed 14 years instead of the prior rule of 20 years.
Uma Krishnaiah’s advocate Tanya Shree told ThePrint that the apex court has fixed the hearing of the case on 19 May.
“On the last occasion, the Supreme Court had issued notice seeking response from the State of Bihar and to the accused on the Writ Petition. The matter will now be taken up tomorrow by the court,” the advocate said.
In her petition submitted on 29 April, Uma Krishnaiah submitted that it is a well-settled principle of law that life imprisonment means full natural course of life and cannot be mechanically interpreted to be 14 years. “It means that imprisonment for life lasts until the last breath,” she had petitioned.
After his release from jail, Anand Mohan had claimed innocence and added that he was “ready to be hanged if found guilty”. The former Bihar MP had made the remark while addressing a public event in Bihar’s Araria.
Several retired civil servants as well as IAS associations had criticised the Bihar government’s decision to amend the jail manual. “The Central IAS Association expresses its deep dismay at the decision of the State Government of Bihar to release the convicts of the brutal killing of Late Shri G Krishnaiah, IAS, former District Magistrate of Gopalganj, by a change in classification rules of prisoners,” the association had tweeted.
The Association of Andhra Pradesh, too, had condemned the decision of the Bihar government.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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