THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
New Delhi, Oct 3: The Supreme Court has delivered its verdict in the murder case of former Bihar minister Brij Bihari Prasad. The court acquitted six accused, including former MP Surajbhan Singh. However, two convicts, including former legislator Munna Shukla, were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Supreme Court upheld the Patna High Court’s decision to acquit Surajbhan and the other six individuals. In contrast to the Patna High Court’s ruling, the Supreme Court sentenced Munna Shukla and one other convict to life imprisonment and ordered both to surrender within 15 days.
The Patna High Court had acquitted eight accused, including former MP Surajbhan Singh and former legislator Munna Shukla, in this case. Overturning the lower court’s decision, the Patna High Court acquitted all eight accused in 2014 due to a lack of evidence, whereas the lower court had found them all guilty.
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court completed the hearing in this case on August 21 and 22. Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar, and R. Mahadevan delivered the verdict today.
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Brij Bihari Prasad was shot dead in 1998
Veteran Bihar leader Brij Bihari Prasad was shot dead in broad daylight in 1998 while serving as the Minister of Science and Technology in the Bihar government.
He was accused in the engineering admission scam. The shooting occurred while he was taking a walk in the evening at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in Patna.
In 2009, the lower court had sentenced all eight accused to life imprisonment. The accused included Surajbhan Singh, Vijay Shukla alias Munna Shukla, Mukesh Singh, Rajan Tiwari, Lalan Singh, Mantu Tiwari, Ram Niranjan Chaudhary, Sunil Singh, and Shashi Kumar Rai.
His wife, Rama Devi, has been a BJP MP and filed a petition with the Supreme Court, challenging the High Court’s decision.
