PATNA: Former MP and JD-U leader Anand Mohan was 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 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 on Monday 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 judge acquitted 29 of the 36 accused in the case giving them benefit of the doubt. The high-profile political couple Anand Mohan and Lovely broke into tears once a local judge sentenced the husband to death and his wife to life term for the murder of a district magistrate in 1994.

"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.

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