New Delhi, Jul 16 The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its verdict on a plea challenging the Bihar government's decision to prematurely release former MP Anand Mohan, who was serving life term in the 1994 murder case of then Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiah.
A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu heard submissions of the advocates including those appearing for petitioner Uma Krishnaiah, the wife of the slain officer, the Bihar government, Mohan and the State Sentence Remission Board.
During the hearing, the bench wondered how the murder of a public servant on duty was not considered the rarest of rare case.
"These observations would encourage the criminals that they will get away with murdering a public servant and the court will not consider it rarest of rare," the bench observed.
"We wonder what could be a greater rarest of rare case," the bench said.
In this case, Anand Mohan was awarded death penalty on October 5, 2007 by the trial court, which was commuted to rigorous life imprisonment by the Patna High Court on December 10, 2008.
The high court order was confirmed by the apex court in July 2012.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the petitioner, argued that Mohan was earlier released on parole and the state should have been fair in informing the top court about it.
"Should the State not tell this court about the period of parole," Luthra argued, adding that as per media reports, Mohan was released on parole thrice.
He argued that the remission board had not considered all the relevant aspects.
"It is a case where this lady (petitioner) is battling against the travesty of justice," Luthra said.
The counsel appearing for the Bihar government argued that Mohan had completed over 14 years of actual sentence period.
The bench asked whether the remission board was informed about the pending cases against Mohan while considering the aspect of premature release.
The top court told the counsel appearing for Bihar government that as per Luthra's submissions, Mohan was released on parole at least thrice.
"Why is the state not putting before us the exact dates when parole was granted," the bench asked.
The state's counsel said he would place the details before the court.
In May 2023, the top court sought response from the Centre, the Bihar government and others on the plea challenging the prematurely release.
Mohan was released from Saharsa jail in April 2023 following an amendment to the Bihar prison rules.
The petitioner has contended that life imprisonment awarded to him meant incarceration for his entire natural course of life and it cannot be mechanically interpreted to last just 14 years.
Mohan's name figured in a list of more than 20 prisoners who were ordered to be set free by a notification issued by the state's law department as they had spent over 14 years behind the bars.
The remission of his sentence followed an amendment to the Bihar Prison Manual by the then state government whereby the restriction on early release of those involved in killing of a public servant on duty was done away with.
This, the critics of the state government's decision claim, was done to facilitate the release of Mohan, a Rajput strongman.
Krishnaiah, who hailed from Telangana, was beaten to death by a mob in 1994 when his vehicle tried to overtake the funeral procession of gangster Chhotan Shukla in Muzaffarpur district.
Mohan, then an MLA, was leading the procession, and was alleged to have instigated the mob to kill Krishnaiah.
