Slain Bihar minister’s widow seeks death penalty for killers
August 13th, 2009 - 2:54 pm ICT by IANS
Patna, Aug 13 (IANS) The widow of slain Bihar minister Brij Bihari Prasad Thursday demanded that the eight people sentenced to life imprisonment for his murder be sent to the gallows. The eight include a former MP and two state legislators.
“They should have been hanged for the heinous crime. They deserve no less punishment than a death sentence,” Rama Devi, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Sheohar, told reporters here.
On Wednesday, a city court had sentenced eight people, including former MP Surajbhan Singh and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) legislator Munna Shukla, to life imprisonment for the 1998 murder.
Another JD-U legislator, Shashi Kumar Rai, also convicted for his involvement in the crime, was given two years’ imprisonment.
Reacting to the judgement, Rama Devi said: “We expected that the court would give capital punishment to them to send a message to society. If the murderers file a petition against their conviction, I will challenge them in a higher court.”
Prasad, a minister in the Rabri Devi government, was gunned down by heavily armed men inside the premises of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences here on June 13, 1998, when he was taking an evening walk. He was then under judicial custody in connection with a fake degree scam and was undergoing treatment.
Surajbhan Singh, Shukla and Tiwari face several other criminal charges, including those for murder, kidnapping and loot.
Surajbhan Singh was sentenced to life imprisonment last year in the murder of a farmer in Begusarai district. Shukla was also convicted in the 1998 murder of Gopalganj district magistrate G. Krishnaiya.
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Tags: armed men, bharatiya janata party, bihari, brij, death sentence, district magistrate, evening walk, fake degree, gallows, gandhi institute, heinous crime, indira gandhi, judicial custody, life imprisonment, other criminal charges, prasad, rabri devi, shukla, state legislators, undergoing treatment