Supreme Court
– Photo: Amar Ujala
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The Supreme Court on Thursday announced the punishment in the murder case of former Bihar minister Brij Bihari Prasad in 1998. The court sentenced two people including former MLA Munna Shukla to life imprisonment. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar and R Mahadevan partially rejected the Patna High Court’s decision to acquit all the accused.
The court asked the convicts Mantu Tiwari and former MLA Shukla to surrender within 15 days. However, the top court gave the benefit of doubt to six other accused, including former MP Suraj Bhan Singh, and upheld the decision to acquit them as per the High Court order. The bench said that the charges against Mantu and Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla under sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC would have been proved. They will have to surrender within 15 days.
What happened in the High Court and lower court?
Earlier on July 24, 2014, the High Court had said that keeping in view the evidence and witnesses of the prosecution, Surajbhan Singh alias Suraj Singh, Mukesh Singh, Lallan Singh, Mantu Tiwari, Captain Sunil Singh, Ram Niranjan Chaudhary, Shashi Kumar Rai, Munna Shukla And Rajan Tiwari deserves the benefit of doubt. The court had rejected the trial court’s order of August 12, 2009, which had convicted him and sentenced all the accused to life imprisonment.
Who challenged the decision?
Rama Devi, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and wife of Brij Bihar Prasad, had challenged the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) decision to acquit the accused due to lack of evidence. He had approached the Supreme Court against the 2014 order of the court.
Briefly understand what is in the Supreme Court’s decision?
The Supreme Court convicted two accused, including former MLA Munna Shukla, in the 1998 murder of former Bihar minister Brij Bihari Prasad. Along with this, the court sentenced two people including Munna Shukla to life imprisonment. The court partially canceled the order of Patna High Court in the case. The court asked the convicts Mantu Tiwari and former MLA Shukla to surrender within 15 days. Along with this, the Supreme Court gave the benefit of doubt to former MP Suraj Bhan Singh and others and upheld the decision to acquit them.
