Ex-Bihar MP, jailed in IAS officer's murder, released

Patna/Saharsa: Gangster-turned-politician Anand Mohan, who was serving a life sentence for killing an IAS officer in Bihar three decades ago, walked out on Thursday amid protests by family members and well-wishers of the slain bureaucrat.

Mohan, who had been an MP prior to his conviction in 2007, was released from Saharsa jail on Thursday morning after being behind the bars for 15 years. The gangster-turned-politician's supporters who believe that their leader was "framed" in the murder of G Krishnaiah, the then district magistrate of Gopalganj, had planned a celebratory procession but the release was done in a manner which precluded any such gathering.

Krishnaiah, who hailed from Telangana and was from a Scheduled Caste, was beaten to death by a mob in 1994 when his vehicle tried to overtake a funeral procession in Muzaffarpur district. Mohan, who was the sitting MLA from Mahishi, was leading the procession taken out upon the death of his close associate Chhotan Shukla, another dreaded gangster who fell to bullets of his rivals before realizing his political ambitions.

Mohan's name figured in a list of more than 20 prisoners who were ordered to be set free by a notification issued by the state Law department earlier this week as they had spent more than 14 years behind bars. His remission of sentence followed an April 10 amendment of Bihar Prison Manual by the Nitish Kumar government whereby the restriction on early release of those involved in killing of a public servant on duty was done away with.

Lovely Anand thanks Nitish

Anand Mohan's wife Lovely Anand, a former MP herself, expressed relief over his release for which she profusely thanked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. She maintained that her husband, who was awarded death penalty by the trial court which got commuted to imprisonment for life by the High Court, was "innocent". "We are pained by the brutal manner in which an honest officer like G Krishnaiah was killed. I fully empathise with the suffering of his wife. But my husband was not even present at the site of the incident. Had he been there, he would have tried to save Krishnaiah even at the cost of his own life," she added.