Reacting to the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government releasing 27 prisoners, including gangster-turned-politician Anand Mohan Singh who was serving life sentence in the 1994 murder of Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiah, by amending the state’s prison manual on Thursday, the daughter of the IAS officer said it was “disheartening” to see him being released from jail.
Anand Mohan Singh was released from Bihar’s Saharsa Jail on Thursday at 4 am. (HT)
Anand Mohan Singh was released from Bihar’s Saharsa Jail on Thursday at 4 am. (HT)
Speaking to news agency ANI, Padma said, “It’s disheartening for us that Anand Mohan Singh has been released from jail today. The government should reconsider this decision. I request Nitish Kumar ji to give a second thought to this decision. With this decision, his govt has set a wrong example. It is unfair not just to a family but to the whole nation. We will appeal against this decision.”
Singh was pronounced a death sentence in 2007 for the murder of G Krishnaiah – a 1985-batch IAS officer. But a year later, the sentence was changed to life imprisonment by Patna high court.
Singh was released from Bihar’s Saharsa Jail on Thursday at 4 am.
On Monday evening, the Bihar law department issued a notification, stating that on the recommendation of the Bihar state sentence remission council, the “decision was taken for the release of prisoners having served actual sentence of 14 years or sentence of 20 years with remission.”
The Indian Civil and Administrative Service (Central) Association on Tuesday expressed dismay at the Bihar government for its decision to release Singh and other convicts- who were serving a life sentence for the murder of the IAS Officer G Krishnaiah. Urging the government to “reconsider” the decision, the top IAS body said that the release of a convicted killer is “tantamount to the denial of justice”.
“A convict of a charge of murder of a public servant on duty, cannot be re-classified to a less heinous category. Amendment of an existing classification that leads to the release of the convicted killer of a public servant on duty is tantamount to the denial of justice. Such dilution leads to impunity, and erosion in the morale of public servants, undermines public order, and makes a mockery of the administration of justice,” the IAS officers’ body said in the letter.
According to a clause from the Bihar Prison Manual, anyone who was found guilty of killing a government official would not be given the benefit of remission ever. However, on April 10, the Bihar government had removed this clause.
