'What's more sorrowful...': Asaduddin Owaisi questions silence of Bihar IAS officers on release of Anand Mohan

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday slammed the Bihar government headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for tweaking rules that enabled the release of gangster-turned-politician Anand Mohan Singh. Anand Mohan, who was serving a life sentence, was released from Saharsa jail on Thursday morning after being behind bars for 15 years.  

Singh was convicted for his role in the 1994 murder of the then Gopalganj collector G Krishnaiah during the funeral procession of Muzaffarpur gangster Chotan Shukla. A local court had sentenced him to death in October 2007 but Patna High Court commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in December 2008.

The former Bihar MP was released after the state government recently amended the prison rules. "This decision of the Bihar government is the second murder of G Krishnaiah (Gopalganj collector who was murdered in 1994)," Asaduddin Owaisi said. "What's more sorrowful is that the entire association of Bihar IAS officers is keeping a mum on this."

The state government amended the Bihar Prison Manual, 2012, on April 10, removing a clause that said those convicted for the murder of a public servant on duty could not be given remission of their jail term.

The Indian Civil and Administrative Service (Central) Association criticised the decision and said it is "tantamount to denial of justice". It urged the state government to reconsider its decision.

"The Central IAS Association expresses its deep dismay at the decision of the state government of Bihar to release the convicts of the brutal killing of G Krishnaiah, IAS, former district magistrate of Gopalganj, by a change in classification rules of prisoners," it said.

The association that a convict of the charge of murder of a public servant on duty, cannot be re-classified to a less heinous category.

Uma Devi, the wife of G Krishnaiah, said Singh was released for political purposes. "We are not happy, we feel it is wrong. There is caste politics in Bihar, he is a Rajput, so he will get Rajput votes and that is why he is being taken out (from jail), otherwise, what is the need of bringing a criminal," she said. "He will be given an election ticket so that he can bring Rajput votes."

BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi too slammed the state government for tweaking the prison rules. He said Nitish Kumar in 2016 amended the law and included that those found guilty of killing a government official will never be given the benefit of remission. "Now for your own benefit, you have amended the law again so that you can win the election," Sushil Modi said.

(With inputs from PTI)