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While convicting Nath, Supreme Court had reversed the High Court and the trial court's judgements as they failed to notice the sensitivity and intricacies of the case involving the then ruling party leader who mustered full support of the administration and prosecution and won over almost all the witnesses
A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India has awarded life imprisonment to former Rashtriya Janta Dal MP Prabhunath Singh, who was recently convicted for shooting down two persons who were allegedly voting against him in 1995.
Notably, the Court has also directed Bihar government to compensate the victims of the said incident.
An amount of INR 10 lakh each is to be paid to the families of both the deceased and 5 lakhs to the injured, by the Bihar Government and the accused separately.
The bench of Justices SK Kaul, Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath has also awarded a seven-year sentence to Singh for the offence of attempt to murder under Section 307 of Indian Penal Code.
Singh is at present undergoing life term in another murder case.
Top Court on August 18 had held the former RJD leader guilty of murder stating that his case was an “exceptionally painful episode of our criminal justice system”.
While convicting Singh of the offences under Section 302 and 307 of the IPC, court had directed his production in custody today for pronouncement of sentence. Later an application was moved to allow his to appear virtually for pronouncement of sentence.
"The applicant/respondent No. 2 (Singh) is permitted to appear virtually through video conferencing on 01.09.2023 for hearing on question of sentence, instead of the physical appearance, as directed vide judgement dated 18.08.2023," the bench had thus ordered.
The top court allowed the appeal filed by Harendra Rai against the Patna High Court's judgement of December 2, 2021 which had upheld the trial court's decision of October 24, 2008, acquitting Singh and six others of all the charges related to killing of Rajendra Rai, 18, and Daroga Rai, 47, near a polling booth in Chhapra.
It noted a "clear and deliberate lapse" as well as "tainted role" by the prosecution in not producing the investigating officer and other witnesses.
The bench relied upon a statement of injured Rajendra Rai, who subsequently died of gun shot injuries, saying it is to be read as a dying declaration.
"The dying declaration and the statement of Lalmuni Devi (mother of deceased) fully establish that it was Prabhunath Singh, who had caused the injuries from his firearm weapon, which proved to be fatal for two out of the three injured and also caused injury to the third surviving injured witness, namely Smt Lalmuni Devi," the bench said.
In its strong observations, the top court said the High Court as well as the trial court failed to exercise their powers to summon the witnesses of the charge-sheet to prove the police papers.
Case Title: Harendra Rai vs. State of Bihar and Ors.
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