Supreme Court berates Bihar government for "assisting" RJD's Prabhunath Singh in 1995 murder case; awards life term to Singh

The Supreme Court recently sentenced Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former member of Parliament, Prabhunath Singh, to life imprisonment for two murders committed in 1995. [Harendra Rai vs State of Bihar and ors].A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S Oka, and Vikram Nath imposed the sentence while opining that the death penalty would not be appropriate since the incident took place almost 28 years ago..Along with the life sentence, Singh was also ordered to pay ₹20 lakh as a fine for the offence of murder. Further, he was given a 7-year rigorous imprisonment term along with a fine of ₹5 lakhs for the attempt to murder a court witness. .In its sentencing order passed on September 1, the Court also lamented that the Bihar government had assisted the accused (Singh) in the case rather than prosecute it fairly. Therefore, it refrained from ordering the reimbursement of prosecution expenses. "We are not inclined to grant any such expenses to the State considering the fact that the State in fact did not prosecute the case fairly, rather throughout assisted the accused," the Supreme Court said. .Last month, while convicting Singh in the case, the top court had castigated the trial court, the Patna High Court, the Bihar Police, and the public prosecutor as well for their handling of the case.The bench had 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 the attempt to murder a court witness, Lalmuni Devi.It had then kept the matter for hearing on sentencing..The case before the top court arose out of appeals filed by the brother of one of the deceased in the 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.The Patna High Court, in a suo motu revision criminal petition, had earlier refused to interfere with the trial court order acquitting the RJD leader, leading to the appeal before the Supreme Court.The Supreme Court convicted the accused on August 18 and then listed the matter on September 1 for hearing on sentencing. .The Supreme Court has now awarded damages of ₹50 lakh in total for the legal heirs of the two deceased as well as the court witness whom Singh was convicted for attempting to kill.Out of this, ₹25 lakh is to be paid by Singh. Of this amount, the legal heirs of the two deceased were ordered to be paid ₹10 lakh each and the attempt-to-murder victim (or her legal heir) is to be given ₹5 lakh.The remaining ₹25 lakh is to be paid by the State to these persons on similar terms, to compensate for the trauma and harassment faced by them..The total damages are to be deposited with the trial court within two months, the Supreme Court added. The lower court was asked to file a compliance report within four months..Advocates Abhay Kumar, Shagun Ruhil, Rajat Khattry, Kusum Pandey, Saurabh Mishra, and Neetu Jain Gautam appeared for the complainant, one Harendra Rai. Advocates Devashish Bharuka, Sarvshree, Shobhit Dvivedi, and Swati Mishra represented the Bihar government.Senior Advocates R Basant and Abhishek Manu Singhvi with advocates Neeraj Shekhar and Sunny Choudhary appeared for Prabhunath Singh..[Read order]