Supreme Court convicts RJD leader Prabhunath Singh for 1995 murder; slams Bihar police, Patna High Court, prosecutor

The Supreme Court on Friday castigated the trial court, the Patna High Court, the Bihar Police, and the public prosecutor for their handling of a murder case in which Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former member of parliament, Prabhunath Singh, was the main accused. [Harendra Rai vs State of Bihar and ors].The Supreme Court termed the case an "exceptionally painful episode of our criminal justice system" while holding Prabhunath Singh guilty for the 1995 murders of Daroga Rai and Rajendra Rai, and for attempt to murder a court witness, Lalmuni Devi. .A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath lamented that the courts, the police, and the prosecution had 'utterly failed' to fulfill their responsibilities and duties. The Court also came down upon the trial court and the High Court for shutting their eyes to the manner in which investigation and trial was conducted by the prosecution. "The trial court and the High Court miserably failed to notice the sensitivity and intricacies of the case. Both the Courts completely shut their eyes to the manner of the investigation, the prosecutor’s role, and the highhandedness of the accused as also the conduct of the presiding officer of the trial court ... They continued with their classical rut of dealing with the evidence in a manner as if it was a normal trial. They failed to notice the conduct of the public prosecutor in not even examining the formal witnesses and also that the public prosecutor was acting to the advantage of the accused rather than prosecuting the accused with due diligence and honesty," the judgment stated.The bench further termed the investigation in the case "tainted" and indicative of the high-handedness of Singh, being a "powerful person" and a member of parliament. .Earlier, the trial court and the Patna High Court had upheld the acquittal of several accused in the case.The Supreme Court directed that Prabhunath Singh be immediately taken into custody and produced before the Court on September 1 to decide on the question of sentence. .Prabhunath Singh is currently undergoing a life sentence in another murder case from 1995. In 2017, a trial court had convicted him for the murder of a legislator, Ashok Singh, who had defeated the RJD leader in the State elections of 1995..Everything was going as per Singh's plan, prosecution was supporting defence: Court.The case before the top court arose out of appeals filed by the brother of one of the deceased in a 28-year-old double-murder case. Singh is said to have opened fire on a group of persons for not voting as per his wish in the 1995 Legislative Assembly elections, following which two persons died. In the criminal case registered over the incident, the Supreme Court found that "everything was going as per the plan and wish" of the main accused, Prabhunath Singh, who had mustered the support of the administration and the investigating agency. He influenced and won over almost all the witnesses, who were declared hostile, the Court further found. "The relevant formal witnesses including the Investigating Officer were not produced in the trial by the prosecution, the Public Prosecutor prosecuting the case was supporting the defence, the Presiding Officers were completely insensitive towards their pious duty," the Court added. However, the bench noted that Singh had made a 'glaring mistake' in getting a court witness Lalmuni Devi, the mother of a deceased, kidnapped ten days before the date fixed for recording of her statement. This led to the filing of a habeas corpus petition in the High Court, which led to Devi eventually deposing before the trial court. The inspecting judge recorded several adverse remarks against the prosecutor and other officials. The trial was then directed to be shifted from Patna to Bhagalpur, after noting that Devi had been influenced to initially depose that she had not been kidnapped..Despite this, the trial proceedings continued to be held in a shabby manner, the Supreme Court found. In a grievance petition filed against the acquittal of the accused, an inspecting judge at the High Court, Justice Navin Sinha (who was later elevated to the Supreme Court and has since retired), had noted 'glaring deficiencies' on the part of the prosecution and trial judge. Nevertheless, the Patna High Court, in a suo motu revision criminal petition, later refused to interfere with the order of acquittal, leading to the appeal before the Supreme Court..The Supreme Court allowed the appeal and convicted the RJD leader and another accused in the case..Advocates Abhay Kumar, Rajat Khattry, Shagun Ruhil, Neetu Jain, Kusum Pandey, Saurabh Mishra, and Anamika represented the brother of the deceased.Advocate Devashish Bharuka appeared for the Bihar government, and advocate Sunny Choudhary represented the accused in the case who were acquitted by the trial court..[Read Judgment]