Supreme Court on Friday held Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former MP Prabhunath Singh guilty in a 1995 double murder case and overturned the Patna HC order acquitting him, as reported by news agency ANI.
In 2017, a trial court found Singh, a three-term JD(U) and one-time RJD MP from Maharajganj, guilty in a case pertaining to the 1995 murder of legislator Ashok Singh, who defeated Prabhunath Singh in the 1995 Bihar assembly polls. Back then, Singh had threatened to kill him within 90 days of the election, as per a Hindustan Times report.
A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, AS Oka, and Vikram Nath convicted SIngh in the case saying there is sufficient evidence to show he murdered Rajendra Rai, 18, and Daroga Rai, 47, near a polling booth in Chhapra in March 1995.
“We set aside the impugned order of the Patna high court and convict respondent no 2...Prabhunath Singh, under Section 302 (murder) for the murders of Daroga Rai and Rajendra Rai. We direct the home secretary of...Bihar and the director general of police of the state to arrest Prabhunath Singh and produce him before this court in custody on the next date of hearing to be heard on [the] argument of [the] sentence,” said Justice Nath, reading out the judgment, as quoted by Hindustan Times.
The two were shot dead because they did not vote as per Singh’s suggestion. The Patna high court transferred the case from Chhapra after the kin of those killed alleged that witnesses were being threatened and influenced. In December 2008, a Patna court acquitted Prabhunath Singh following lack of evidence. His acquittal was upheld by the Patna high court upheld in 2012. Rajendra Rai’s brother challenged the acquittal in the top Court.
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