Anand Mohan Singh, a gangster-turned-politician, was released from Bihar’s Saharsa jail early Thursday morning, according to a jail official. Singh’s release was necessitated by the Bihar government’s recent amendment to the prison rules, which allowed the release of 27 convicts, including him. He was serving a life sentence for the murder of Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah in 1994.\
An official notification stated that 27 prisoners who had served 14 years or 20 years in jail had been ordered to be released after the Bihar Government amended the rules of the Jail manual. Posters welcoming former MP Anand Mohan have been placed in the district’s Veer Kunwar Singh Chowk.
The gangster-turned-politician had previously been granted a 15-day parole to attend the engagement ceremony of his MLA son Chetan Anand. He was returned to Saharsa prison on April 26 after his parole period expired. Earlier on Wednesday, the state prisons department released nearly 14 inmates from various state jails.
Singh was one of eight people who were unable to be released yesterday. The opposition in the state has reacted angrily to the former MP’s release from prison. Anand Mohan Singh hit back at the BJP on Tuesday, saying convicts in the Bilkis Bano case were also released under pressure from Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
“In Gujarat also, some decision has been taken under the pressure of RJD and Nitish Kumar, go and see that. Some people have been released and garlanded. Yes, I am pointing out to that case (Bilkis Bano case) only,” Singh told media persons.
He said that he has “full sympathy” with the slain IAS officer’s family. “I have full sympathy for G Krishnaiah’s family. This episode ruined two families, that of Lovely Anand (his wife), and G Kishnaiah,” the former MP added.
Anand Mohan assassinated Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah in Muzaffarpur on December 5, 1994. Anand Mohan Singh is accused of inciting a mob to kill Krishnaiah. He was dragged from his official vehicle and lynched. G Krishnaiah was a 1985-batch IAS officer from Mahbubnagar in modern-day Telangana.
In 2007, a trial court sentenced Anand Mohan to death. The Patna High Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment a year later. Mohan then appealed the verdict to the Supreme Court, but no relief has been granted, and he has been imprisoned in Saharsa since 2007. His wife, Lovely Anand, was also a Lok Sabha MP, and their son, Chetan Anand, is an RJD MLA from Sheohar in Bihar.
