Patna: Hours after the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government Monday issued orders for the release of controversial former Lok Sabha member Anand Mohan Singh from prison, Uma Devi, wife of slain IAS officer G. Krishnaiah, told ThePrint that she was “shocked and outraged” by the decision.
Singh had been serving a life term for involvement in Krishnaiah’s murder in 1994, while the deceased was serving as the district magistrate (DM) of Gopalganj in Bihar. Krishnaiah was on his way to Gopalganj, when he was lynched by a mob near the state’s Muzaffarpur district, during the funeral procession of ‘gangster’ Chhotan Shukla.
Singh was handed a death sentence by a local court in October 2007 for “instigating” the crowd to lynch Krishnaiah, but the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment by the Patna High Court in December 2008.
His release had been expected ever since the Bihar home department issued a notification on 10 April to drop Rule 481(1)(a) of the Bihar Prison Manual 2012, which forbade the earlier release of one convicted of the murder of a public servant on duty.
While it has been reported that bureaucrats in the state resented the amendment in the manual to facilitate Singh’s release, there has been little voiced opposition to the move. Protest against the expected release of the former MP has come more from Dalit leaders outside the state. Krishnaiah was Dalit.
On Monday, as the Bihar law department issued order for the release of 27 inmates from prisons across Bihar, including Singh, Uma Devi said, “It’s a move to bring back a criminal back from jail into politics. It’s gross injustice and all for getting votes”.
It is believed in Bihar’s political circles that the move to release Singh is an attempt by the Nitish Kumar government to woo Rajput voters, who reportedly constitute about four per cent of voters in the state. Singh is Rajput.
He is currently out on parole to attend the engagement of his son, Chetan Anand, a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA.
Talks of Mohan’s release had picked up pace last year, after CM Nitish Kumar ended his party’s (Janata Dal United) alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Front (NDA) and joined hands with the RJD, Congress and others to form government.
While Chetan is an RJD MLA, his mother, former MP Lovely Anand is also a RJD leader.
Last year the government had reportedly said in assembly that Aanand Mohan Singh could not be released before the expiry of his prison term as the Bihar Prison Manual forbids such release of those convicted of killing government servants. It then went on to amend the manual this month.
While Monday’s release order, issued by law department secretary Ramesh Chand Malviya, clarified that only prisoners whose names have been recommended by a screening committee and who have spent 20 years or more in jail, were being released, as even the life imprisonment term is of 14 years, Singh has been jail only since 2008 after the Supreme Court upheld the Patna high court verdict.
The list of those to be released also includes the name of Awadhesh Mandal, husband of JD(U) MLA Bima Bharati, who has been in jail since 2008 after being convicted of murder.
Also read: How to beat JD(U)-RJD caste maths? BJP to focus on EBCs & Mahadalits, hunt for ‘vibrant’ leader
‘Suffered and still suffering’
Speaking to ThePrint over phone from Telangana, where she now stays, Uma Devi said the Bihar government had offered her a grade II job after her husband’s death, but she turned it down and chose to return to her hometown in Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana).
She went on to join a government degree college in Hyderabad as a lecturer of Chemistry and retired from the job in 2017.
“It was traumatic raising my two daughters alone. My younger daughter was so small at the time of the tragedy occurred that she does not even remember the face of her father. My eldest daughter, who is now a bank officer, remembers some things about her father,” said Devi, adding that both the girls were now married.
When the Bihar government amended the Bihar Prison Manual, there were media reports of Uma Devi traveling to Patna and making an appeal in the Patna high court against Singh’s release. However, it was also speculated that she may be afraid to come to Bihar owing to perceived danger.
“I am not afraid of anyone or even death. But I do not have the financial resources or any political support. Krishnaiya and I were college sweethearts. Ours was a love marriage and he did not get a single paisa dowry from my parents,” she said.
She now has her hopes pinned on her husband’s former IAS batchmates to oppose Singh’s release.
“I have suffered due to the tragic incident and still suffering,” Uma Devi told ThePrint.
‘Whole country is watching’
Following the Bihar government’s 10 April amendment to the prison manual, former IPS officer Amitabh Kumar Das had written to state governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, demanding his intervention in the matter.
The Bihar IAS Association, political parties and even Dalit leaders like Chirag Paswan have, however, refrained from making any public statement on the issue.
Former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi even defended Anand Mohan Singh while speaking to the media Monday. “Anand Mohan ji is not a criminal. I do not know, if the move to release him is good or bad”, Manjhi said.
Support for Krishnaiya has, however, come from outside the state.
While Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati called the Nitish Kumar government”anti-Dalit” in a statement issued Sunday, former IPS officer and R.S. Praveen Kumar, chief of the BSP’s Telangana unit held a press conference Monday demanding that Nitish Kumar withdraws the amendment to the prison manual.
“I feel sad that the whole country is watching when injustice is happening right in front of our eyes and under the active direction of the government at that. This is a sad day not just for civil servants, but also for all the mariganised in this country,” he said when contacted by ThePrint Monday.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: Why Nitish Kumar is Congress’ best bet for 2024 elections, despite a predictable outcome