Why Release Of Gangster-Turned-Politician Anand Mohan Singh Will Haunt Nitish Kumar And Can Boomerang On Him

Gangster-politician Anand Mohan Singh, was released from prison early Thursday (27 April). 

He was serving time behind bars after being convicted of the murder of a young Dalit IAS officer, Gopinath Krishnaiah, on 5 December, 1994. 

Singh, who belongs to the Rajput community, wields a lot of influence over the group in Bihar, and has many other cases of assaults, attacks and riots pending against him.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, under pressure from ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), tweaked the state’s prison rules to facilitate Singh’s release. 

The Patna High Court convicted him and sentenced him to death in 2007. The Supreme Court commuted his sentence to life imprisonment. 

Though Singh has already served his sentence--a life sentence is deemed to be 14 years--he could not be released due to a clause in Bihar’s Remission (Avoidance) Policy of 1994. 

As per this policy, criminals convicted of more than one murder, or of rape, dacoity, execution or preparation of terror acts and murder of a government official on duty cannot be released from prison even after they have served their full sentence. 

The Bihar government, through a notification issued 10 April, amended this policy to remove the line in which the murder of a government official was a ground for non-release of convicts. 

With the tweak, the murder of a government official who is on duty will not be counted as a ground for denying the release of the convict after he or she has served the full sentence.

It is widely believed that this rule was amended to facilitate Anand Mohan’s release. Anand Mohan’s son Chetan Anand is an RJD MLA and the whole family has very close ties with the RJD and its first family. 

Anand Mohan contested and won two successive Lok Sabha elections from Sheohar seat in 1996 and 1998, first on a Samata party ticket and then as RJD nominee. 

The RJD had been pressuring chief minister Nitish Kumar to tweak the prison rules to facilitate Anand Mohan’s release.

Anand Mohan is popular among the Rajputs and commands a lot of loyalty in his community. Observers say the RJD wants to woo the Rajputs. 

Why This May Boomerang On Nitish Kumar

The release of Anand Mohan has already triggered calls for release of prisoners convicted of murders, massacres and other heinous crimes. 

The CPI-ML, a radical left party which is a constituent of Bihar’s ruling mahagathbandhan, has demanded the release of six Maoists who have been in jail for the past 22 years after being convicted of engaging in a gunfight with the police at Arwal in 1988. A police inspector, and three Maoists, died in that gunfight. 

The CPI-ML is sympathetic to Maoists and is widely believed to have links with the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a proscribed terror outfit. 

Fourteen Maoists were charged under the Terrorist & Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and were awarded life sentences. Seven of them died while serving their jail terms. 

Referring to the release of Anand Mohan and a few others, the CPI(ML) has objected to the “selective release” of prisoners. 

CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharyya said: “There were 14 comrades convicted under TADA in 2003 in a blatant travesty of justice. Six of them died in prison and one was released by the Patna High Court in 2020. Three years have elapsed since then and one more has died in jail. Now this selective release of prisoners has inflicted more injustice on these victims (the convicted Maoists) who have already spent more than two decades of their lives in prison”. 

Bhattacharyya has demanded the release of all prisons convicted under TADA. Not only that, he has asked Nitish Kumar to release “all oppressed people who have been locked up unfairly under the Prohibition Act”. 

The CPI(ML) leader was referring to the tens of thousands of people, mostly poor and from the underprivileged sections, who are behind bars for violations of Bihar’s stringent anti-liquor laws that are very dear to Nitish Kumar. 

Other parties and caste groups are bound to get into the act and demand release of their supporters and fellow caste members. 

For instance, a number of Bhumihars (Brahmins who are landlords) are in prison for being members of or having links with the Ranvir Sena that stands accused of carrying out massacres of Dalits. 

Bhumihars are politically powerful and leaders of the community will be justified in demanding the release of their fellow caste members who are in prison after being convicted of various crimes. 

Similarly, the Bahujan Samaj Party will also demand the release of Dalits who are behind bars for murders, rapes and other crimes. 

There will be similar demands from many other parties and organisations. 

Nitish Kumar has opened a Pandora’s box by tweaking the state’s prison rules to facilitate the release of Anand Mohan. This indiscretion will come to haunt him soon.

He will find it hard to turn down those demands and can be accused of favouring Rajputs but discriminating against other castes if he does so. And if he does succumb to these demands, his carefully crafted sushasan babu image will lie in shambles. 

Also read: Here’s one example of how the RJD is arm-twisting Nitish Kumar to do its bidding