GUILTY!
Patna: Oct. 1, 2007
13 years after the crime was committed, Additional District and Sessions judge Ramshreshta Rai in Patna on Monday delivered the verdict on the brutal lynching of the then District Magistrate of Gopalganj G. Krishnaiah by holding the Janata Dal (U) husband-wife duo Anand Mohan and Lovely Anand, and five others guilty under Sections 302, 307, 147, and 427 of the Indian Penal Code.
The other five convicted in the case are Vijay Kumar Shukla a.k.a. Munna Shukla, former MLA Akhlaq Ahmed, Harendra Shahi, Shashi Shekhar, and Arun Kumar Sinha.
The court, however, acquitted 29 others in the case in the lack of sufficient evidence against them.
Sentencing in the case would be announced on October 3.
Krishnaiah was lynched by a mob led by Anand Mohan, Lovely Anand, and Munna Shukla on December 5, 1994, a day after Munna Shukla's brother Chhotan Shukla and three others were gunned down in Muzaffarpur.
On December 5, 1994, Anand Mohan, his wife and former MP Lovely Anand, former legislator Akhlaq Ahmed and thousands of their supporters were protesting the killing of Chhotan Shukla at Bhagwanpur Chowk in Gopalganj. When the DM Krishnaiah's jeep arrived at the Chowk to pacify the crowd, Mohan and his cohorts incited the crowd to attack the DM who was badly beaten up before being shot by Bhutkun Shukla.
The DM later died at the hospital.
"This is a fight between truth and conspiracy and I am sure in the coming days, truth will prevail over conspiracy," said Anand Mohan before being whisked away to a waiting prison van that transported all convicts to the Beur Jail.
Munna Shukla was not so diplomatic in expressing his reaction.
"We are the victim of a conspiracy for speaking against the government," said Shukla adding he will appeal the verdict in a higher court.
|
