Who is Anand Mohan Singh? Former MP and IAS officer's murder convict released from Bihar's Saharsa jail

Don-turned-politician Anand Mohan Singh was released from the Saharsa jail in Bihar on Thursday after being found guilty of killing a Dalit IAS officer in 2007. The opposition and the populace then expressed displeasure towards the Nitiesh-led government.

Who is Anand Mohan Singh?

Anand is a native of the Bihar district of Saharsa and is the grandson of the liberation fighter Ram Bahadur Singh Tomar. In 1990, he joined Janata Dal and began his political career after winning a seat in the Bihar assembly from Hamshihi.

The journey of Anand Mohan occurred at the same time as Lalu Prasad Yadav became the dominant figure among the Yadavs and lower classes. Following his leadership of Janata Dal in the state, he was appointed chief minister in 1990.

Anand Mohan Singh, a well-known opponent of Lalu, founded the Bihar People's Party. His wife Lovely Anand secured a Vaishali byelection in 1994. Anand Mohan, a former member of parliament for the Sheohar Lok Sabha seat, was found guilty and given the death penalty by a Patna additional district and sessions judge's trial court in 2007. The Patna High Court commuted the punishment to life in jail a year later.

READ | 'He is innocent': Anand Mohan's wife thanks Bihar CM as former MP walks free from jail

Mohan then appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, but he has been imprisoned in Saharsa since 2007 without receiving any relief. He is currently on parole & intends to attend his son's wedding to RJD leader Chetan Anand. The former mafia member was found guilty of provoking a mob to organise a demonstration in Vaishali against the murder of bodybuilder Kaushlendra Kumar alias Chhotan Shukla.

Murder of IAS officer G Krishnaiah

On December 5, 1994, people in Shukla's funeral stopped the IAS officer G Krishnaiah's car as he was returning to Gopalganj from Hajipur. Khabra village is close to Muzaffarpur. Anand Mohan incited the mob to lash out at Gopalganj DM Krishnaiah, a Dalit man who was born in the Mahabubnagar area of then-undivided Andhra Pradesh, now Telangana. He was taken from his car and killed by lynching.

The prosecution claimed in 2008 before the Patna High Court that Chhotan was murdered in an encounter, and one of the protesters, Anand Mohan encouraged Bhutkun, Chottan's brother, to gun down Krishnaiah since he was a member of the administration that ordered Chottan's execution.