Tejashwi Yadav’s Partyman Munna Shukla Sentenced To Life Imprisonment For Former RJD Leader's Murder

On 3 October, the Supreme Court sentenced Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Vijay Kumar Shukla, also known as Munna Shukla, and Mantu Tiwari to life imprisonment for their involvement in the murder of former Bihar minister Brij Bihari Prasad.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar, and R Mahadevan overturned a 2014 Patna High Court ruling that had acquitted Shukla, Tiwari, and several others.

The accused included former parliamentarian Surajbhan Singh, Mukesh Singh, Lallan Singh, Captain Sunil Singh, Ram Niranjan Choudhary, Shashi Kumar Rai, and Rajan Tiwari.

Background

The case stems from the 1998 assassination of Prasad, the then minister of science and technology in the Rabri Devi cabinet.

Prasad, a prominent RJD leader who was an accused in the Bihar education scam, was gunned down in broad daylight at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Science in Patna, where he was receiving treatment.

The trial court in 2009 had convicted all the accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment. However, the verdict was later challenged in the Patna High Court, which acquitted the group in 2014, only for the Supreme Court to reverse this decision a decade later.

Political Rivalry

Prasad was a powerful figure from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community and a beneficiary of Lalu Prasad Yadav's efforts to challenge the dominance of forward castes like the Bhumihars and Rajputs in Bihar.

Shukla and his brothers, hailing from the Bhumihar community, emerged as a key figure in this volatile environment.

Before Shukla entered the fray, his brothers — Chotan and Bhutkun Shukla — had already established a stronghold in the Muzaffarpur-Vaishali region. Chotan Shukla’s rivalry with Prasad was particularly intense, and Prasad was widely believed to have orchestrated Chotan’s murder in 1994.

In retaliation, (Munna) Shukla took over his family’s operations after his brother Bhutkun was also killed. It is alleged that Bhutkun’s death was carried out by his own bodyguard, Deepak Singh, who was paid by Prasad.

This further escalated the feud between the two families, with Shukla ultimately deciding to eliminate Prasad.

Assassination

Munna Shukla hired Shri Prakash Shukla, a notorious shooter from Uttar Pradesh, to kill Prasad. The murder was executed at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Science, with AK-47 rifles used in the attack. Prasad’s assassination is seen as Munna Shukla’s major entry into Bihar’s criminal underworld.

Munna Shukla’s Political Rise

Shukla entered politics in 2000 and was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Lalganj. Over the years, he switched allegiances between various political parties, including the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and the RJD.

In recent years, Shukla has emerged as a key figure in Tejashwi Yadav’s outreach to the Bhumihar community. He contested the 2024 general election from Vaishali as an RJD candidate, a decision that sparked controversy within the party.

Many RJD members questioned Yadav’s support for Shukla, given that Prasad was also an RJD leader. However, Yadav stood firm, recognising the strategic importance of courting the Bhumihars, a forward caste, to broaden the party’s support base.

The rivalry between Prasad and Shukla is reflective of caste tensions that characterised Bihar's infamous "Jungle Raj" era, a time marked by bloodshed between different communities.

With Shukla now sentenced to life imprisonment, the political implications are significant, particularly for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

It remains to be seen whether the BJP will seize on the “Jungle Raj” narrative to target the RJD or tread cautiously to avoid alienating the Bhumihar community.