PATNA: Former MP and JD-U leader Anand Mohan was on Wednesday sentenced to death by a local court which also awarded life imprisonment to his wife in the murder of the then Gopalganj District Magistrate who was lynched by a mob 13 years back.

Additional Sessions Judge, Ram Krishna Rai also awarded capital punishment to two others--Akhlaq Ahmed, a former MLA from Bikramganj and RJD leader and Arun Kumar in connection with the brutal killing of G Krishnaiah on December 5,1994. Besides Anand's wife--Lovely, a former MP from Vaishali-- those who got life term are Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla, a sitting JD(U) MLA from Lalganj, Shashi Shekhar and Harendra Kumar.

Anand Mohan, a former MP from Sheohar who was leader of the the then Bihar People's Party (BPP) at the time of the murder, and his wife were accused of inciting a mob to lynch Krishnaiah. It is perhaps for the first time that a former MP was being sent to gallows. The Court held all the seven accused guilty under IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (rioting) and 427 (mischief causing damage).

Krishnaiah was lynched by a mob accompanying the funeral cortege of a BPP leader Chotan Shukla on December 5, 1994. The officer was pulled out of a car,beaten up mercilessly and then shot dead. The BPP is now defunct. All the seven convicted were also fined Rs 25,000. The high-profile political couple Anand Mohan and Lovely broke into tears when the judge pronounced the judgement. "No no, we were not expecting this sort of punishment.

We have done nothing wrong and we are not involved in the killing of the District Magistrate of Gopalganj G Krishnaiah about 13 years ago," said the sobbing duo after the court passed the order. "We are going to challenge the order in the superior court shortly," said Anand Mohan, former MP, after regaining his nerves. Former RJD MLA Akhlaq Ahmed, sentenced to death, also could not hold back his tears hearing the judgment.