Bihar Govt tweaks rules to ensure release of murder convict former MP Anand Mohan and 26 others

Patna: Following Bihar government’s recent amendments in the Bihar Police Jail Manuals, 2012 in regard to curtailing the life sentence term, the state government’s law department has issued an order that paved the way for former MP Anand Mohan and 26 others to get release after having completed 14 years in jail for murder and other heinous crimes.

The State Sentence Remission Council had given the go-ahead for their release, and the law department order on 24 April was based on this recommendation. Mohan, who was convicted of inciting a mob that lynched Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiah in 1994, had completed 14 years of his sentence and was on parole to attend a family wedding.

Prior to the amendment, convicts had to spend at least 20 years in jail to be considered as having served a life sentence. However, the amendment reduced the term for life sentences, allowing those who had served 14 years to be released.

Rule 481(i)(a) of the Bihar Police Jail Manuals had been amended to facilitate the release of Mohan and others, by dropping the phrase "a civil servant on duty." While several of the 27 convicts being released have been asked to register their regular attendance with the local police, no such condition has been put forward for Mohan in the law department's order.

The order, however, does not provide any specific reasons for the decision to release the convicts.