On the day when murdered IAS officer G. Krishnaiah’s wife Uma Krishnaiah moves the Supreme Court against the release of Anand Mohan, former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad slammed the Nitish Kumar government claiming that it did not do anything for the family members of the slain IAS officer.
Gangster-turned-politician Anand Mohan was released on April 27 following which the controversy over his premature release started.
“I want to ask the government of Nitish Kumar as to why it brought the clause of public servant. The public servants are engaged in developmental work. The attack on the public servant keeps on happening in Bihar. Recently, the sand mining mafia attacked a lady mining officer in Patna district. Even attacks on DSP (Deputy Superintendent of Police) and SDO (sub-divisional officer) took place. Why did the government remove the clause of public servant. They must provide some clarification over it,” Mr. Prasad said at the party office while sharing the details of 100 episodes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat.
He further said that if anything new was brought into the rule, there must be some base and the government must clarify it.
Opposition leaders and other party members said that the Nitish Kumar government had allegedly tweaked the rule of the jail manual and on April 10, 2023, the State Home Department (Prison) issued a notification stating “In Bihar Prison Manual 2012, Rule 48(1)(a), the mentioned phrase or, the murder of a public servant on duty will be removed”.
This particular amendment helped the early release of Mr. Mohan. His release by the State government was seen as a move to galvanise the upper caste votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
Abiding by law
On April 24, the Bihar government officially issued the notification to release Mr. Mohan who was serving life sentence for the murder of former District Magistrate of Gopalganj G. Krishnaiah. The Home department had issued the notification having 26 names including Mr. Mohan’s.
“The murder of G. Krishnaiah is really unfortunate; he was a public servant, IAS officer and a Dalit as well. Today, we stand by his family and understand the pain they are going through. When the police lodged a case in this matter, it was the government of Lalu ji; when trial happened in the lower court, it was again the government of Lalu ji. When his appeal was going on, it was the regime of Nitish Babu and when the Supreme Court convicted Anand Mohan, it was the government of Nitish Babu. Why did the government not oppose his conviction that time,” Mr. Prasad said.
“Most importantly, did the Nitish Kumar government do anything for the wife and daughter of G. Krishnaiah. The Andhra Pradesh government gave plot and job as well. I want to know what the Bihar government did for his family members. Even dreaded criminals were released on the pretext of Anand Mohan,” Mr. Prasad asserted.
Mr. Kumar on Friday had clarified that everything had happened as per law and nothing wrong had been done.
