New Delhi: Gangster-turned-politician Anand Mohan Singh was released from Saharsa jail in Bihar today morning, a jail official confirmed to news agency ANI.
He was serving a life sentence in the 1994 murder of then Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah.
Reacting to his release, Padma, daughter of G Krishnaiah, said that she is disheartened by this development and requested the government to reconsider its decision. "It's disheartening for us that Anand Mohan Singh has been released from jail today. The government should reconsider this decision."
"I request Nitish Kumar ji to give a second thought to this decision. With this decision, his govt has set a wrong example. It is unfair not just to a family but to the whole nation. We will appeal against this decision," she added.
G Krishnaiah, the then District Magistrate of Gopalganj, was assassinated by a mob allegedly provoked by Anand Mohan Singh. A lower court in Bihar sentenced the gangster-turned-politician to death in 2007. However, the Patna High Court commuted it to life imprisonment, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2012.
Uma Devi, the widow of the slain IAS officer, said that releasing Anand Mohan from jail was a bad decision. "Public will protest against the release of Anand Mohan, demanding to send him back to jail. Releasing him is a wrong decision. CM should not encourage these types of things. If he (Anand Mohan) will contest elections in the future the public should boycott him. I appeal to send him (Anand Mohan) back to jail."
"I appeal to the President and the PM to intervene in this matter and ask CM Nitish Kumar to send him (Anand Mohan) back to jail...," she added.
The Bihar government had recently amended the prison rules allowing the release of 27 convicts including him.
The clause "those killing government officials were not entitled to release" was removed from the Bihar Prison Manual after the government announced an amendment.
Anand Mohan, a Tomar Rajput, was elected an MP from the Seohar Lok Sabha seat in Bihar in 1996 while still in jail. Over the course of his career, he was accused of numerous other serious crimes. Anand Mohan, the son of a freedom fighter, was given the death penalty in 2007 by the Patna High Court for assisting in the crime. This made him the first Indian politician to receive the death penalty since Independence and ended his political career as far as fighting polls were concerned. In 2008, the sentence was reduced to strict life imprisonment.
Several Rajput politicians have been calling for Singh's early release for the past two years. Even Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has hinted that he "stands by his former colleague" on multiple occasions. Nitish Kumar's support to the Singh family is quite well known. Nitish Kumar and Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav even attended the engagement function of his son Chetan Anand on Monday.