The Patna sessions court has sentenced former member of parliament Anand Mohan and former minister Akhlaque Ahmad to death in the case of murder of Gopalganj district magistrate, G Krishnayya. Anand Mohan’s wife Lovely Anand, who also is a former member of parliament, got a life-term. A member of Bihar Legislative Assembly Munna Shukla and a certain professor were also awarded the death sentence.

The court took 13 long years to decide the case. On December 5, 1994 a mob led by Mohan and his cohorts murdered the district magistrate at Muzaffarpur without much rhyme or reason. The victim did try to reason with the mob that he was not responsible for whatever was agitating them, because he was the district magistrate of the neighbouring Gopalganj district, not Muzaffarpur (the district where the crowd belonged).

The crowd was out to demonstrate against the murder of Chhotan Shukla, who was involved in major offences and was a known bad character according to police records. He happened to be the brother of JDU MLA Munna Shukla. Munna (who has got a death sentence) and his slain brother Chhotan are said to have been close to Anand.

Virtually all major political parties have tried to curry favour with Anand Mohan and his cohorts. The secular JD and the communal BJP have been ardent admirers of Mohan mainly because he has a lot of muscle power.

If we need any fresh indicator of the moral quality of our politicians, we have this court judgement against some of our leaders.
 

FAISAL HASHMI