Ex-Bihar minister’s murder: Former MLA’s plea seeking time to surrender rejected

The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea of convicted criminal-turned-politician Vijay Kumar Shukla, alias Munna Shukla, seeking time to surrender in the 1998 murder case of former Bihar minister and RJD leader Brij Bihari Prasad.

A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar and R Mahadevan was told by senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Shukla, that he needs 30 days’ time on account of his wife’s health issues and to manage the affairs.

Dismissing Shukla’s plea, the Bench said its October 3 order granted him sufficient time of 15 days and therefore no further indulgence can be granted. On October 3, the top court had convicted Shukla, a former MLA, and accused Mantu Tiwari in the murder case.

The top court had partially set aside a Patna High Court order acquitting all accused in the case and asked Shukla and Tiwari to surrender within two weeks.

Tiwari is the nephew of late Bhupendra Nath Dubey, who was the brother of Devendra Nath Dubey, a political rival of Prasad’s widow Rama Devi.

The top court, however, gave the benefit of doubt to five other accused, including former MP Surajbhan Singh, and upheld their acquittal.

The murder of Prasad, an influential OBC leader, by Gorakhpur-based gangster Sri Prakash Shukla, who was later gunned down by Uttar Pradesh STF and others, had shaken the police of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

The case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on March 7, 1999, and the central agency had named former MP Surajbhan Singh and three others as conspirators of the crime.

It was alleged by the probe agency that a meeting had taken place in Beur Jail in Patna where Surajbhan Singh was lodged with Munna Shukla, Lallan Singh and Ram Niranjan Chaudhary before Prasad’s killing on June 13, 1998.

On July 24, 2014, the high court had acquitted all accused giving them the benefit of doubt and set aside the trial court’s August 12, 2009, order sentencing them to life imprisonment.

Accused Sri Prakash Shukla, alias Shiv Prakash Shukla, Sudhir Tripathi and Anuj Pratap were killed in an encounter with the Special Task Force of the UP Police in September 1998.

According to the prosecution, Prasad was killed by armed gunmen, along with his bodyguard, inside the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna while he was taking a stroll.