Killer MLA ‘feasts’ on way to court from jail

Patna, March 10: Bihar’s muscle-flexing former MP and ruling JD(U) leader Anand Mohan, serving a life sentence for murdering a district magistrate, threw the law of the land to the wind by attending a feast and addressing a press conference on his way from jail to a court in police custody.

The politician’s daring conduct on Tuesday is seen by many in Bihar as a “small concession” he perhaps got from the government as part of the embattled Bihar Chief Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar’s growing efforts to placate the state’s restive upper castes. But the incident led to the suspension on Wednesday of all the seven policemen escorting Mohan from jail in Saharsa to a court in Sitamarhi for an appearance.

Surrounded by policemen, the former MP from Shivhar visited an RJD leader’s house for a feast in Samastipur where he was greeted with scores of his gun-toting supporters. He addressed journalists on the Sitamarhi court premises and attacked the Congress over the Women’s Reservation Bill. Mohan then travelled from Samastipur to Sitamarhi in a private luxury car accompanied by several vehicles carrying his slogan-shouting supporters.

Mohan was convicted in 2007 along with his wife, ex-MP Lovely Anand, for the murder of Dalit Bihar-cadre IAS officer and then Gopalganj district magistrate G. Krishnaiyyah in December 1994. Five other JD(U) leaders were also convicted along with this high-profile couple for the upright officer’s murder.