Hyderabad: The family of slain Dalit IAS officer G. Krishnaiah is shocked over the release of former RJD MP Anand Mohan Singh, a Bahubali leader who spent 15 years in a Bihar prison for instigating the bureaucrat’s lynching in 1994.
Following the release of the gangster-turned-politician on Thursday after the Bihar government tweaked the rules, Krishnaiah’s family members said it was disheartening for them to see Anand Mohan walk out of jail.
After Krishnaiah’s wife Uma, his daughter Padma has now appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in the matter to ensure that people like Anand Mohan do not come back into the society.
Padma, the youngest of the two daughters of Krishnaiah, requested the Prime Minister to bring a law to check gangsters and mafias, so that government officers can discharge their duties honestly and without any fear.
“It’s very disheartening for us. We were hoping life imprisonment will continue,” said Padma, who was just five when her father was lynched to death.
Krishnaiah, an IAS officer of 1985 batch, was brutally killed on December 5, 1994. Then Gopalganj District Magistrate, Krishnaiah was lynched by a mob allegedly provoked by Anand Mohan. The mob, which was protesting with the body of Chhotan Shukla, a gangster-politician of Anand Mohan’s party who was killed a day earlier, dragged Krishnaiah out of his car and lynched him.
Anand Mohan was sentenced to death by a lower court in 2007, but the Patna High Court commuted the penalty to life imprisonment in 2008. He was in jail for 15 years.
Padma also said that the family could consider legal remedies. She also claimed that majority of the people in Bihar are supporting her family.
“There are very few who are supporting Anand Mohan,” she said.
Padma also said that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to release Anand Mohan was not expected, as in the past he had supported his life imprisonment. She agreed with her mother that Nitish Kumar got him out to get the votes of the Rajput community.
Padma revealed that Chirag Paswan was the first politician who reached out to them, adding that there are many political leaders who are supporting them.
Earlier, Krishnaiah’s wife Uma had urged the Prime Minister to intervene and make Nitish Kumar withdraw his decision, which will set a bad precedent and have serious repercussions for the entire society.
“My husband was an IAS officer and it is the Centre’s responsibility to ensure that justice is done,” she said.
She had also alleged that Nitish Kumar is releasing the killer of her husband for Rajputs votes, and to form government again.
“He (Nitish) thinks that by releasing him, he will get votes of all the Rajputs and this will help him form the government again. That is wrong,” said Uma, who lives in Hyderabad.
“This goes on in Bihar, but this is not good. There should be good people in politics and not criminals like Anand Mohan,” she said.
The widow of the slain bureaucrat also said that she was not happy when Anand Mohan was awarded life imprisonment instead of the death penalty.
Uma, 60, believes that the release of Mohan may endanger the lives of civil servants and government officials discharging their duties honestly as the criminals will think that they can take law into their hands and do whatever they want and then walk out of jail.
After losing her husband, she had moved to Hyderabad with her two daughters, aged 7 and 5 then. The family was traumatised after what it had to go through.
Uma took up the job of lecturer at a college in Hyderabad to look after the family. She was allotted a plot in Prashasan Nagar in Jubilee Hills, where she constructed her house.
Uma, who retired in 2017, ensured good education for both the daughters, who are currently employed as a bank manager and a software engineer.
–IANS