In a landmark verdict, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court has sentenced RJD leader Vijay Kumar Shukla, also known as Munna Shukla, and another accused, Mantu Tiwari, to life imprisonment in the Brij Bihari Prasad murder case. The bench, comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar, and R. Mahadevan, overturned the Patna High Court’s acquittal and upheld the trial court's decision to convict the two accused.
The Supreme Court, while pronouncing its judgment, emphasized that the trial court’s order sentencing Munna Shukla and Mantu Tiwari to life imprisonment for their involvement in the murder should be upheld. However, six other accused, including former LJP MP Surajbhan Singh, were acquitted in the case.
Brij Bihari Prasad, a prominent leader of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), was murdered in 1998 at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) hospital in Patna. His wife, Rama Devi, currently a BJP MP, along with the CBI, had challenged the Patna High Court’s verdict in the Supreme Court. The apex court heard arguments in the case on August 21 and 22 before reserving its judgment, which was delivered on Thursday.
In 2009, the trial court had sentenced eight people to life imprisonment for the murder. The incident was seen as part of a larger gang war, with Brij Bihari’s killing linked to powerful criminal elements. Notably, the infamous gangster Shri Prakash Shukla was also named in the case. Shukla, who was a notorious figure in both Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, was later killed in an encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF).
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