Patna: Killing of Telangana-born Dalit IAS officer G Krishnaiah

Patna : Former Bihar MP and mafia don Anand Mohan, who is serving a life sentence in the killing of IAS officer G Krishnaiah, is to be set free along with 26 others who have been lodged in different prisons of the state for more than 14 years.

He was dragged out of his official car and lynched.

A notification to the effect was issued late Monday evening, when, incidentally, Mohan, who has been on parole, was celebrating the engagement of his son Chetan Anand, who is a sitting MLA of the ruling RJD in the state.

Talking to reporters, Mohan expressed his gratitude towards Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who along with his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, was among the attendees at the gala function organised on the outskirts of Patna. Without mentioning BSP supremo Mayawati by name, Mohan lashed out at "those who are making an issue out of the unfortunate death of G Krishnaiah". The Telangana-born Dalit IAS officer, who was then the district magistrate of Gopalganj, was beaten to death by a mob in 1994, while his vehicle was passing through Muzaffarpur district. Anand Mohan was present on the spot at the time of the killing, where he was part of the funeral procession of Chhotan Shukla, a dreaded gangster who was pumped with bullets in Muzaffarpur town. The sensational killing had acquired caste overtones in an era when Bihar was stirred by the Mandal wave. While Shukla was an upper caste Bhumihar and Mohan, his sympathiser, is a Rajput, the alleged killers were said to be sympathisers of Brij Bihari Prasad, an OBC strongman who went on to become a minister in the Rabri Devi government but ultimately fell to attackers' bullets while undergoing treatment at a Patna hospital a few years later.

The wife of murdered IAS officer Uma Krishnaiah said the decision is sending "wrong signals" in the society and requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and asked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to take the decision back.

"Not a good decision. We were not happy with the life imprisonment decision earlier but now he is being released and entering politics. We don't agree with the move. It's in a way encouraging the criminals. It sends out a message that you can commit a crime, and go to jail but then get freed and join politics. The death penalty was good."

Ms Krishnaiah called the decision a "selfish motivation" and suggested it will incentivise criminals. She further called it a political decision that "nobody would like".

On the future course of action, she said she'd take the advice of G Krishnaiah's batchmates and the IAS association, who are discussing it and will decide within a week.