New Delhi:
A former MP from Bihar, Anand Mohan, has been told that he will have to serve a life sentence for his alleged role in a murder.
Mr Mohan and his wife Lovely Anand co-founded the Bihar's People's Party. In 1994, they were arrested along with other politicians for instigating a mob that lynched a civil servant, IAS officer Krishnaiyyah, on December 5, the same year.
The civil servant was first shot in Muzzafarpur and and then dragged out of his car and stoned to death as more than a hundred people watched. Mr Mohan and his wife were charged with instigating this murder. A trial court sentenced Mr Mohan to death and his wife was sentenced to life , but the Patna High Court later acquitted Lovely Anand along with five others and commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment.
Mr Mohan was arrested and jailed for the murder. But he contested the 1996 parliamentary election from prison - and won. He then secured bail to attend parliament. He was re-elected in 1998 but lost the 1999 election that was held as then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee lost a trust vote by a single vote.
The Bihar government appealed to the Supreme Court against that verdict. Mr Mohan also appealed against his conviction. The Supreme Court, by agreeing that a life sentence holds for Mr Mohan, has dismissed both sets of appeals.