SC adjourns hearing on plea challenging early release of Bihar ex-MP Anand Mohan Singh to Feb 2024

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned hearing on a plea filed by the widow of slain IAS officer G. Krishnaiah challenging the premature release of former Bihar MP Anand Mohan Singh.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Dipankar Datta posted the matter for further hearing on February 6, 2024.

In the previous hearing held on September 26, the top court could not take up the matter for hearing due to paucity of time and decided to take it up in the first week of November.

Gangster-turned-politician Anand Mohan Singh was released from the Saharsa jail following an amendment in Bihar's prison rules.

The petition, filed by widow of slain bureaucrat, alleged that the state government amended the 2012 Bihar Prison Manual with retrospective effect in order to ensure that he is granted the benefit of remission.

The Bihar government has defended his release by saying that the benefit of amended remission policy was extended in other cases as well, adding that the amendment sought to remove the discrimination on the basis of status of a victim.

In 1994, Krishnaiah, then District Magistrate of Gopalganj, was beaten to death by a mob when his vehicle tried to overtake the funeral procession of gangster Chhotan Shukla. The mob was instigated by Anand Mohan Singh.