Patna court on Wednesday sentenced former member of Parliament Anand Mohan and two others to death for the murder of Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah in 1994.
In a landmark verdict that is bound to have political ramifications, Additional Sessions Judge Ram Krishna Rai also awarded capital punishment to two others -- former legislator and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Akhlaq Ahmed and Arun Kumar -- in connection with the brutal killing of G Krishnaiah on December 5, 1994.
Anand's wife Lovely, a former MP from Vaishali, was awarded the life sentence. The court also gave life sentences to Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla, a sitting Janata Dal-United MLA from Lalganj, Shashi Shekhar and Harendra Kumar.
The court had earlier found Mohan, who was a leader of the Bihar People's Party at the time of the incident, and his wife guilty of inciting a mob to lynch Krishnaiah.
The district magistrate was killed near Khabra, on the outskirts of Muzaffarpur, by a mob that was enraged over the death of Chotan Shukla, an underworld don with political ambitions. Shukla and three others were gunned down when they were returning from an election campaign for the 1995 assembly polls.
The district magistrate was lynched by a mob accompanying the funeral procession of Shukla on December 5, 1994. The officer was pulled out of a car, beaten mercilessly and then shot dead. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on the seven convicted accused. Earlier, 29 of the 36 arrested accused were acquitted on benefit of doubt.
"I waited for 13 years to smile," said Uma, wife of the Gopalganj district magistrate, about the verdict.
"The judgment gave me some satisfaction. At last justice has been done," Uma added.
Uma said that she was thankful to the court as the guilty deserve to be hanged to death for killing her husband.
Uma, who lives in Hyderabad with her two young daughters, said that the judgment will warn culprits against repeating such a brutal act.
"I will appeal to the apex court to uphold the sentences if the convicted accused file a petition for mercy," said Uma, who is lecturer in a government college.
Image: Uma Krishnaiah, widow of IAS officer G Krishnaiah, at her home in Hyderabad with a portrait of her husband.
Photograph: SnapsIndia
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Ex-MP, 2 others get death for district magistrate's murder
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