Bihar Alters Prison Rules: Ex-MP Involved in IAS Officer’s Murder Set to be Released.

The Bihar government has announced the release of 27 prisoners, including former MP Anand Mohan Singh, convicted in the 1994 murder of bureaucrat G Krishnaiah. The gangster-turned-politician was sentenced to death in 2007 by a lower court in Bihar, but the Patna High Court commuted it to life imprisonment, and the Supreme Court upheld that order in 2012. The move comes after the state’s law department amended the Bihar Prison Manual, removing the clause which had forbidden the remission of jail term for those convicted of murdering a public servant on duty.

The notification from the law department stated that the new rules apply to prisoners who have served the actual sentence of 14 years or a sentence of 20 years with remission. ‘The decision was taken for the release of prisoners having served actual sentence of 14 years or sentence of 20 years with remission,’ the notification said.

The change in rules and Singh’s release has stirred up controversy, with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) terming it ‘anti-Dalit’. Mayawati tweeted on Sunday, ‘The move by the Nitish government to prepare the release of Anand Mohan after changing rules in the case of the brutal murder of extremely honest IAS officer G Krishnaiah, who belonged to a poor Dalit family from Andhra Pradesh’s Mehboobnagar (now in Telangana), is being discussed for negative and anti-Dalit reasons in the whole country.’ She urged the Nitish Kumar government to reconsider the decision, saying that Singh’s release would anger the Dalit community.

Meanwhile, BJP’s IT Cell head Amit Malviya also criticized Nitish Kumar. ‘Can someone who is leaning on a criminal syndicate, to hold on to power, be the face of India, even as opposition leader?’ Mr Malviya tweeted on Monday.

The ruling Janata Dal (United) hit back at the BJP, with JDU leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh saying that the change in rules was aimed at getting the common man and special prisoners on a uniform platform.

Singh’s release benefits the Rajput community, from which he hails and has considerable influence. For the last two years, several politicians from the community have been demanding his early release, including Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who has hinted that he ‘stands by his former colleague’.