New Delhi: The recent ruling by the Supreme Court has resulted in a life sentence for Prabhunath Singh, a leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and former Member of Parliament (MP). This decision comes after the Supreme Court overturned his acquittal due to concerns about the fairness of the trial process highlighting failures within the state machinery and trial court.
Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, AS Oka and Vikram Nath who formed the bench also directed Singh and the Bihar government to provide ₹10 lakh each to the families of the two victims involved in this 1995 double murder case. Additionally ₹5 lakh will be given to an injured victim from that case.
During the proceedings Prabhunath Singh appeared from jail in Jharkhand. Currently serving a life sentence for another murder case he faced charges related to his alleged involvement in Ashok Singh’s murder—a legislator who had defeated Prabhunath Singh in the 1995 Bihar assembly election. It was claimed that Prabhunath Singh had issued threats against Ashok Singh within 90 days of election results.
Advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and R Basanth representing Singh during this hearing appealed against imposing a death sentence. They argued that this particular case did not meet the criteria for being classified as “rarest of offences. They also noted that Singh had submitted a petition for review regarding the order of conviction on August 18.
In its ruling on August 18 the Supreme Court expressed dissatisfaction with how crucial participants in the trial such as the Investigating Officer, the public prosecutor and the judiciary performed.