Nitish Kumar defends Bihar govt's decision to release don-turned-politician Anand Mohan

PATNA: At a time when the slain Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiah’s wife Uma, the Central IAS Association and different other fora urging Bihar government to reconsider its decision to grant remission to the murder convict don-turned-politician Anand Mohan, CM Nitish Kumar on Friday strongly defended his government’s decision to release the former MP from Saharsa district jail asking, “Should there be any difference in granting remission to prisoners convicted of murdering a government officer or a common man?”

Nitish also asserted that there should be no difference in grant of remission to the prisoners based on to whom they have murdered.
Anand Mohan, who was serving a life sentence for his role in the 1994 murder of the then Gopalganj DM G Krishnaiah during the funeral procession of Muzaffarpur gangster Chotan Shukla, was released from Saharsa jail on Thursday morning after the Bihar government granted remission to him along with 26 other prisoners lodged in different jails across the state.
Anand Mohan got benefit of a recent amendment in the Bihar Prison Manual whereby the restriction on early release of those involved in “murder of a public servant on duty” was done away with.

“The provision to “prohibit the grant of remission to a person convicted of murdering a public servant” was neither in the Model Prison Manual released by the Centre in 2016, nor in the prison manuals of any other state. Such provision was only in the Bihar Prison Manual. Now the Bihar Government scrapped this provision. So, what is the problem (if we scrapped it)?” Nitish questioned while responding to media queries on the sidelines of a state government’s event organized to observe the Civil Services Day at the Adhiveshan Bhawan here.
“Please tell me how long a convict of murder will remain in jail? He (Anand Mohan) spent more than 15 years in the prison,” Nitish told reporters, asserting, “There is no irregularity in the release of Anand Mohan. The state government’s decision is “totally genuine and correct.”

Nitish also said though a total of 27 prisoners (Including Anand Mohan) were released on the grant of remission but discussions were being held on the release of only Anand Mohan. The CM also said that a total of 22 meetings of the state-level remission board have been held since 2017 and altogether 698 prisoners were released on the grant of remission.
Releasing the data of release of prisoners on the grant of remission in other states in year 2020 and 2021, Nitish said a total of 105 prisoners were released in Bihar in the given two years, whereas Uttar Pradesh released 656 prisoners, Madhya Pradesh (692), Maharashtra (313), Rajasthan (346) Assam (280), Chhattisgarh (338), Jharkhand (298), Odisha (203), Karnataka (195), Telangana (139) and Kerala (123) in the corresponding period.