1998 murder of ex-Bihar minister SC commences final hearing on pleas against acquittal of accused

New Delhi, Aug 21 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday commenced final hearing on pleas challenging acquittal of former MP Surajbhan Singh and eight others, including ex-MLA Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla, in the 1998 murder of former Bihar minister Brij Bihari Prasad.
     A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar and R Mahadevan commenced the hearing on pleas filed by former BJP MP Rama Devi, widow of Brij Bihari Prasad, and the CBI against the Patna High Court's 2014 order acquitting the accused for lack of evidence.
     Senior advocate Siddharth Aggarwal, appearing for Devi, contended that the high court erred in its finding by acquitting the accused in the case.
     The CBI, which was asked to investigate the case by the state government, was represented by senior advocate Sonia Mathur.
     Mathur referred to landline calls from a telephone at Surajbhan Singh's residence in Mokama town of Patna district to other accused in the case to highlight conspiracy between the accused.
     The bench told Mathur as per records and the high court judgement, Surajbhan Singh was in Beur jail on the day of incident that took place on June 13, 1998, and it would difficult to prove the conspiracy charge on him.
     Senior advocate R Basant and other counsels appeared for the accused in the case and defended the high court order acquitting them.
     The hearing remained inconclusive and would continue on Thursday.
     Justice Khanna said the bench may pronounce its decision in open court on Thursday.
     On July 24, 2014, the high court said that after perusing the prosecution evidence, Surajbhan Singh alias Suraj Singh, Mukesh Singh, Lallan Singh, Mantu Tiwari, Captain Sunil Singh, Ram Niranjan Choudhary, Shashi Kumar Rai, Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla and Rajan Tiwari deserve grant of benefit of doubt.
     It set aside the trial court's August 12, 2009 order convicting them and awarding all the accused life sentences.
     The high court directed Mantu Tiwari, Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla and Rajan Tiwari who were in jail at time to be released. Other accused Surajbhan Singh alias Suraj Singh, Mukesh Singh, Lallan Singh, Captain Sunil Singh, Ram Niranjan Choudhary, and Shashi Kumar Rai were already on bail in the case at that time.
     One accused Bhupendra Dubey died during the trial of the case and accused Sri Prakash Shukla alias Shiv Prakash Shukla, Sudhir Tripathi and Anuj Pratap were killed in an encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Police in September 1998.
     According to the prosecution, on June 13, 1998, multiple armed men had gunned down Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Brij Bihari Prasad along with others inside the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna, while he was taking a stroll.
     He was admitted in the hospital for treatment, while in judicial custody as an accused in an alleged engineering college admission scam.
     Some of the prosecution witnesses before the trial court had claimed in their deposition that the murder of Brij Bihari Prasad was a fallout of the killing of Chhotan Shukla, elder brother of Munna Shukla.
     According to witnesses, Chottan Shukla was killed on December 4, 1994 by the henchmen of Prasad, while he was returning home after canvassing during assembly elections.
     Surajbhan Singh was former member of Parliament from Lok Janshakti Party and Munna Shukla was former MLA from Janata Dal (United).

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)