1998 murder case of ex-Bihar minister: SC rejects former MLA's plea seeking time to surrender

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea of convicted criminal-turned-politician Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla seeking time to surrender in the 1998 murder case of former Bihar minister and RJD leader Brij Bihari Prasad.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar and R Mahadevan was told by senior advocate Vikas Singh, appearing for Shukla, that he needs 30 days' time on account of his wife's health issues and to manage the affairs.

Dismissing Shukla's plea, the bench said that its October 3 order granted him sufficient time of 15 days and therefore no further indulgence can be granted.

On October 3, the top court had convicted Shukla, a former MLA, and accused Mantu Tiwari in the murder case.

The top court had partially set aside a Patna High Court order acquitting all accused in the case and asked Shukla and Tiwari to surrender within two weeks.

Tiwari is the nephew of late Bhupendra Nath Dubey, who was the brother of Devendra Nath Dubey, a political rival of Prasad's widow Rama Devi.

The top court, however, gave the benefit of the doubt to five other accused, including former MP Surajbhan Singh, and upheld their acquittal.

The murder of Prasad, an influential OBC leader, by Gorakhpur-based gangster Sri Prakash Shukla, who was later gunned down by Uttar Pradesh STF and others, had shaken police of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

The case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on March 7, 1999 and the central agency had named former MP Surajbhan Singh and three others as conspirators of the crime.

It was alleged by the probe agency that a meeting had taken place in Beur Jail in Patna where Surajbhan Singh was lodged with Munna Shukla, Lallan Singh and Ram Niranjan Chaudhary before Prasad's killing on June 13, 1998.

On July 24, 2014, the high court had acquitted all the accused giving them the benefit of the doubt and set aside the trial court's August 12, 2009, order sentencing them to life imprisonment.

Accused Sri Prakash Shukla alias Shiv Prakash Shukla, Sudhir Tripathi and Anuj Pratap were killed in an encounter with the Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh Police in September 1998.

According to the prosecution, Prasad was killed by armed gunmen along with his bodyguard inside the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna while he was taking a stroll.

He was admitted to the hospital for treatment while he was in judicial custody as an accused in an alleged engineering college admission scam.

Some of the prosecution witnesses had claimed before the trial court in their deposition that the murder of Brij Bihari Prasad was a fallout of the killing of Chhotan Shukla, the elder brother of Munna Shukla.

According to witnesses, Chhotan Shukla was killed on December 4, 1994 by Prasad's henchmen while he was returning home after canvassing during assembly elections.