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New Delhi: The
Supreme Court Tuesday rejected the appeal of former Lok Sabha
member Anand Mohan who had challenged his conviction and life
imprisonment in the murder of Bihar's Gopalganj district
magistrate G. Krishnaiah in December 1994.
Anand Mohan had challenged his conviction and award of life
imprisonment by the Patna High Court Dec 10, 2008.
The high court while upholding his conviction commuted the death
sentence to life imprisonment. Anand Mohan and two others were
handed down death sentence by the trial court Oct 3, 2007.
Upholding the conviction and the life imprisonment, an apex court
bench of Justice A.K. Patnaik and Justice Swatanter Kumar in its
judgement said: "We do not find any merit in either the appeal of
A1 (Anand Mohan) or the appeals of the state (seeking restoration
of death sentence) and we accordingly dismiss all the criminal
appeals."
Declining the Bihar government's plea seeking the restoration of
the trial court order of awarding death sentence to Anand Mohan,
the apex court said: "We agree with this view of the high court
and we are of the view that this was not one of those rarest of
rare cases where the high court should have confirmed the death
sentence."
"In our considered opinion, Anand Mohan was liable for rigorous
imprisonment for life," Justice Patnaik said.
The high court, while commuting the death sentence of Anand Mohan
to life imprisonment, held that "though the deceased was a
district magistrate, he was killed in another district as an
occupant of a car by chance on account of mob fury and exhortation
by A1 (Anand Mohan) and firing by Bhutkun Shukla and as A1 (Anand
Mohan) was not the assailant himself..."
Anand Mohan and 35 others were accused of lynching Krishnaiah Dec
5, 1994. Anand Mohan and others were accused of instigating the
mob that killed him.
The trial court Oct 3, 2007 awarded death sentence to three
accused, including Anand Mohan, and life sentence to four others,
including his wife Lovely Anand. The trial court acquitted the
other 29 accused.
The high court upheld the conviction of Anand Mohan but commuted
his death sentence to life imprisonment. The high court let off
six accused. The Bihar government had challenged their acquittal
by the high court.
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