Krishnaiah’s murder: Convict’s wife, acquitted accused in LS bid

Anand Mohan’s wife Lovely Anand in fray from Sheohar on JD(U) ticket, RJD fields Munna Shukla from Vaishali.

On December 5, 1994, G Krishnaiah, a young Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer in Bihar, then posted as the district magistrate of Gopalganj, was returning to his residence after attending a meeting in Hajipur. As fate would have it, his official car was passing through Muzaffarpur when it found itself literally in the eye of a storm — a bloodthirsty mob attending the funeral procession of a dreaded gangster, Chhotan Shukla, who had just been killed in a gang war.

Former MLA Munna Shukla was one of the accused in the 1994 IAS officer’s killing case, but was later acquitted. (HT file)

By all accounts, Krishnaiah had nothing to do with the slain gangster. But as the frenzied mob spotted an official car, it pounced on it, dragged out the IAS officer, his driver and bodyguard and attacked them. Moments later, Krishnaiah lay dead there.

The lynching of an IAS officer, bone-chilling even by the standards of the lawless and violent 90s in Bihar, sent shock waves across the country.

Three decades later, Chhotan Shukla‘s younger brother Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla, who was an accused in the Krishnaiah murder case, is ready to make a bid for the Vaishali Lok Sabha seat on a ticket from Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

He is not the lone candidate with a connection to the case in the upcoming parliamentary polls in the country.

Lovely Anand, wife of Anand Mohan Singh, has been fielded from Sheohar by chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United).

Anand Mohan was convicted for the IAS officer’s murder and handed death sentence, which was later commuted to a life term. Last year, he walked out of jail without serving the entire sentence after the Bihar government notified early release of 27 prisoners after amending its prison manual.

The decision for his early release has been challenged by Krishnaiah’s wife in the Supreme Court, which is yet to pronounce a final verdict.

Munna Shukla, though acquitted by the Patna High Court in 2014 in the IAS officer’s killing case, also has a history sheet in crime. He served time in jail in connection with former Bihar minister Brij Bihari Prasad’s sensational killing but was acquitted by the court, which gave him benefit of the doubt along with others.

Brij Bihari, an accused in the engineering entrance test scam case, was undergoing treatment at Patna’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in judicial custody when he was shot in the hospital premises on June 13, 1998. His widow Rama Devi, who was the complainant in the case, is currently the sitting BJP MP from Sheohar, a seat which has gone to the JD(U) this time as part of seat sharing deal in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

Munna Shukla has lost parliamentary elections twice, in 2004 and 2009, including once on the JD(U) ticket. However, he was elected thrice as MLA from Lalganj — once an Independent, once from LJP and once from JD(U).

This time, he is pitted against sitting MP Veena Devi, who has been fielded by Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas).

Shukla’s wife Anu Shukla had also won Lalganj assembly seat while he was in jail.

In 1994, Anand Mohan had won the Vaishali seat, defeating RJD candidate at the peak of Lalu Prasad’s popularity, but later his conviction brought curtains on his political career.

In Sheohar seat, Lovely Anand is pitted against RJD’s Ritu Jaiswal, who earned laurels as Mukhia (village head) of a village in Sitamarhi and was also honoured by the Union government. She lost narrowly in 2020 assembly elections from Sitamarhi.

“Bahubalis in politics is not a new phenomenon. All parties encourage it to varying degrees directly or indirectly as winning seats takes precedence over other considerations. How voters view this is important,” said social analyst N K Choudhary.

According to a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), which analysed poll affidavits filed by people’s representatives, 73% of MPs in Bihar face criminal charges.

Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats and 16 in the Rajya Sabha. The ADR report had said that 31 of the 40 MPs who won in 2019 faced criminal charges.