NEW DELHI: Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) leader and former Bihar MP Prabhunath Singh was awarded life imprisonment on Friday by the Supreme Court, days after reversing his acquittal in a double-murder case of 1995.
Singh was accused of killing Rajendra Rai (18) and Daroga Rai (47) near a polling booth in Chhapra in March 1995. He was acquitted by the Patna court in 2008, citing lack of evidence which was upheld by Patna High Court in 2012.
A bench of Justices SK Kaul, AS Oka, and Vikram Nath also directed the former MP and Bihar government to compensate the victims by paying Rs 10 lakh each to the deceased family and Rs 5 lakh to those injured.
Justice Kaul while hearing arguments on the quantum of the sentence said that there were only two punishment options related to life sentence or the death penalty before the former MP. Appearing for Prabhunath Singh, Senior Advocate AM Singhvi while laying emphasis on the lower court’s orders of finding him innocent said his presumption of innocence was high. Senior counsel also indicated that the case was fit for seeking a review of the Supreme Court’s guilty verdict.
The top court had reversed Singh’s acquittal on August 18 opining that the appellate courts failed to take into consideration the conduct of the accused subsequent to the incident and also failed to draw any adverse inference against him with respect to their guilt.
Coming down heavily upon the trial court and the high court for its failure to notice the sensitivity and intricacies of the case, the bench in its verdict authored by Justice Nath said that the trial was “shabby” and the investigation “tainted”.
“Both the courts shut their eyes to the manner of the investigation, the prosecutor’s role and the high-handedness of the accused as also the conduct of the presiding officer of the trial court, despite observations and findings having been recorded not only by the administrative judge but also by the division bench,” it said.