Representative image showing a gavel.
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Muzaffarpur (Bihar): Bihar BJP leader Rama Devi on Thursday expressed happiness after the Supreme Court set aside Patna High Court's order acquitting all accused in the murder of her husband.
The former Sheohar MP had challenged, along with the CBI, the high court order of 2012 when eight people were acquitted in the murder case of her husband Brij Bihari Prasad.
The apex court on Thursday sentenced two persons, including ex-MLA Munna Shukla, to life imprisonment in the 1998 murder case of Prasad, a former minister of Bihar.
The Supreme Court, however, gave benefit of doubt to six other accused, including former MP Surajbhan Singh, and upheld their acquittal as ordered by the high court.
"Justice has prevailed. The guilty will be punished. Those getting the benefit of doubt shall be held accountable by Goddess Bhagvati," an emotional Rama Devi told reporters here.
Prasad was a minister was in the Rabri Devi government and undergoing treatment at a super speciality hospital at Patna in 1998 when he was sprayed with bullets, an incident that brought into spotlight the state's alatming law and order situation.
Rama Devi said, "I urge all concerned to ensure that Shukla surrenders at the earliest. He may try fleeing the country to escape punishment." The assassination of Prasad had also brought to light the phenomenon of Bihar's underworld getting split along caste lines, a result of social churning that started with Mandal Commission.
The ascendance of Prasad, an OBC, was seen as an instance of the erstwhile underdogs asserting themselves through ballot as well as bullet.
The alleged collusion between Shukla and Singh, both dreaded gangsters of their time, to bump off Prasad was seen as an attempt by the traditionally dominant upper castes to crush the challenge posed to their hegemony.