NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Thursday convicted former MLA and RJD functionary Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla and Mantu Tiwari for the 1998 murder of former Bihar minister Brij Bihari Prasad and awarded them life imprisonment. The court, however, granted benefit of doubt to five other accused including former MP Suraj Bhan Singh, acquitting them of conspiracy charges.
HC erred in acquitting all accused: SC
The order marked another twist in the sensational case that had rocked Bihar politics in the late 1990s and established the dominance of dreaded gangster Shri Prakash Shukla over the notorious crime syndicates of Bihar and adjoining Uttar Pradesh.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar and R Mahadevan passed the order on an appeal filed by CBI and Prasad’s wife, former BJP MP Rama Devi, who had challenged Patna HC order acquitting all the accused in the case.
“Mantu Tiwari and Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla are directed to surrender within two weeks to the concerned jail authorities/court to serve the remainder of their respective sentences. In case of failure to surrender, authorities shall take appropriate measures to arrest and detain them in accordance with law,” the bench said.
Brij Bihari Prasad, an influential OBC leader whose rise was seen as part of the challenge that Mandal politics posed to upper caste supremacy in Bihar, was killed on June 13, 1998, at Indira Gandhi’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna where he was undergoing treatment.
His upper caste rivals approached Shri Prakash Shukla, a ruthless killer who had already reached the top of the notoriety graph after carrying out a spate of killings and kidnappings in UP, to eliminate Prasad who was guarded by a well-armed police posse round the clock.
Shukla, who knew Prasad’s rivals, agreed to carry out the job for the sake of his friends and got himself admitted in the same hospital by feigning illness. Soon after, he gunned down Prasad, the audacity of the crime shocking people and multiplying Shukla’s fear. The murder forced UP Police to set up a STF to nab him.
The court said HC erred in acquitting all the accused on the basis of minor discrepancies in the statement of witnesses. It also noted HC adversely commented on the versions given by witnesses as to who had reached the hospital at an earlier point in time.
“Considering the efflux of time of more than 4-6 years between the date of occurrence and recording of court testimony, these issues are at best superficial and peripheral and would not warrant disregarding the prosecution case. The questions posed to the witnesses were more in the nature of a memory test rather than questions posed to test the truthfulness and credibility of their core testimony,” the bench said, setting aside HC’s order.
“Regarding the question of conspiracy and evidence against Suraj Bhan Singh, Mukesh Singh, Lallan Singh, Ram Niranjan Chaudhary and Rajan Tiwari, there is no direct ocular evidence implicating them through the testimonies of Paras Nath Chaudhury and Mahanth Ashwani Das. Since the charge of conspiracy is not substantiated, we will not interfere with HC’s judgment, and they are entitled to benefit of doubt,” the court said.Two other accused – Bhupendra Nath Dubey and Captain Sunil Singh – died during pendency of proceedings.
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