Supreme Court holds RJD leader Prabhunath Singh guilty in 1995 double murder case, overturns Patna HC order acquitting him

New Delhi [India], August 18 : The Supreme Court on Friday held Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Prabhunath Singh guilty in a 1995 double murder case and overturned Patna High Court's order acquitting him.
The court also pulled up the prosecuting agency and said that the tainted investigation shows the high-handedness of the accused, respondent Singh, who was a powerful person, being a sitting MP of the ruling party.
The top court said that Prabhunath Singh is liable to be convicted under Sections 302 and 307 IPC for committing culpable homicide amounting to murder and attempt to murder.
A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, AS Oka, and Vikram Nath convicted Prabhunath Singh in the double murder case. The court noted that there was sufficient evidence to show his involvement in the case.
"Accused-respondent no.2 (Prabhunath Singh) is thus convicted under Sections 302 and 307 IPC for the murders of Daroga Rai and Rajendra Rai and also for the attempt to murder injured Smt. Devi," the top court said and directed the Secretary, Department of Home, State of Bihar and the Director General of Police, Bihar to ensure that Prabhunath Singh (Respondent No. 2) is taken into custody forthwith and produced before this Court to be heard on the question of sentence.
The court fixed September 1 as the next date of hearing and said that the accused Prabhunath Singh be produced before this Court in custody.
The court was hearing an appeal against the Patna High Court order dated December 2021 confirming the judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track Court in Patna dated October 24 2008 acquitting Singh and others of all the charges.
Two men were killed near a polling booth in Chhapra in March 1995. According to the prosecuting agency, the men were allegedly shot dead for not voting as per Singh’s instructions.
An FIR was registered on March 25 1995 at the Police Station Masrakh (Panapur) District Saran at Chapra in Bihar under Sections 147, 148, 149/307 of Indian Penal Code, 18601 and Section 27 of the Arms Act. Later on, Section 302 IPC was added as two out of three injured died during treatment. The said FIR was registered based on the statement of one of the injured Rajendra Rai, who subsequently succumbed to his injuries.
The prosecution examined 11 witnesses. The court noted that out of these 11 witnesses, seven were examined on a single day and their statements were more or less similar to the effect that they saw the incident of firing but did not see who killed the two deceased. All seven witnesses were declared hostile by the Prosecution.
The trial court, vide order dated 23.10.2006, summoned Lalmuni Devi, mother of deceased (Rajendra Rai) as court witness and on November 3, 2006, the date was fixed for recording her statement.
According to a top court order on October 24, 2006, Lalmuni Devi and her husband were abducted from their residence by none other than the brother of Prabhunath Singh and his associates.
The appellant's son made a complaint to the local police and when no action was taken, he approached the Superintendent of Police of Saran district and also the Director General of Police and the State Home Secretary which also went unattended.
This resulted in the filing of a petition seeking a writ of Habeas Corpus before the Patna High Court. Lalmuni Devi was again examined and cross-examined on September 29, 2008, where she completely supported the prosecution's story.
"The dying declaration and the statement of CW-1 fully establish that it was Prabhunath Singh, who had caused the injuries from his firearm weapon, which proved to be fatal for two out of the three injured and also caused injury to the third surviving injured, namely Smt. Devi," the court said.
"The statement of CW-1 is found to be reliable, and the Courts below wrongly discarded it on the ground that it was hearsay and tutored," the court said.