Anand Mohan — From a JP follower to a killer

PATNA: The Patna court verdict sentencing former Lok Sabha member Anand Mohan and two ex-MLAs of Bihar to death for inciting a mob to kill a district magistrate at Muzaffarpur is the first of its kind in the country. The verdict has sent shivers down the spines of several other criminals-turned-politicians.

Though criminalisation of politics is not new and there are several politicians with criminal backgrounds in other states as well, their number is particularly high in Bihar as every political party has at least a few of them.

The conviction of Anand Mohan, Munna Shukla (ruling party MLA) and Mohd Shahabuddin is being perceived as a result of speedy trials against Bihar’s ganglords — a priority of the Nitish Kumar government.

Anand Mohan’s claim to fame is that besides having been elected to the Lok Sabha twice and the state Assembly once, he was involved in about 30 criminal cases in different districts of Bihar.

In time he was acquitted in about 20 cases, but he is still facing trials in eight other than the two in which he has been convicted now.

Prior to his conviction for killing IAS officer G Krishnaiyyah, he was also convicted and awarded three months in jail in another case.

Anand Mohan, who hails from Pachgachhia village in Saharsa district of Bihar, is a grandson of the great freedom-fighter Ram Bahadur Singh. His family was like any other middle-class farmer's family.

Anand Mohan’s folks recall him as a rebel youth who dropped out of college and joined the JP movement in 1974. He sprang into limelight after showing black flags to then prime minister Morarji Desai at a public meeting in Saharsa. Subsequently, he formed a gang of criminals. But he could not be arrested as locals shielded him whenever there was a police raid.

Soon, he acquired the image of Robinhood, riding horses and attacking the rich and the mighty and helping the poor.

Anand Mohan surrendered in court in 1983 and was jailed. But he continued to run his gang from prison and also made a foray into electoral politics, winning the Mahishi assembly seat in Saharsa district in 1990 as a Janata Dal (JD) candidate. 

The following year, he married Lovely Singh, a modest girl from a middle-class Rajput family.

Anand Mohan parted ways with the JD after the implementation of the Mandal Commission report and began challenging Pappu Yadav, then an MLA with a criminal background from Madhepura.

Pappu enjoyed political patronage from Lalu Yadav, then Bihar CM. While Pappu became a political icon for the youth and criminals from backward classes, Anand Mohan became a role model for the upper caste youth in the Kosi belt. Clashes between their supporters became frequent in Madhepura, Purnea and Saharsa districts.

Anand Mohan’s political career got a major boost when he fielded Lovely against JD nominee and wife of veteran Rajput politician of the state SN Sinha in a byelection to the Vaishali parliamentary constituency in 1994 as an independent candidate and ensured her victory.

Soon after this victory, he was named accused, with his MP wife Lovely, in the killing of G Krishnaiyyah and arrested. He was released on bail by the Patna high court after a few months. By that time Lalu’s party had split in Bihar and George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar had formed the Samata Party (SP). The SP tried to rope in Anand Mohan during the 1995 assembly elections, but he instead former the Bihar People’s Party (BPP) and fielded about 100 candidates. Anand Mohan himself contested from three different seats, only to lose all three.

He was put back behind bars as the supreme court cancelled his bail on a plea by the state government in the Krishnaiyyah murder case.

Finding his political charisma vanishing after his involvement in this case and having lost badly in the elections, Anand Mohan joined hands with George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar.