NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court (SC)on Wednesday, October 16 turned down a plea filed by former Bihar legislator Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla seeking a months’ time to surrender in the 1998 murder case of former Bihar minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Brij Bihari Prasad.
A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar and R Mahadevan while dismissing Shukla’s plea said that the court in its October 3rd order had granted him sufficient time of 15 days, therefore no further indulgence can be granted. At the onset, Shukla through his counsel has informed the bench that he needs 30 days’ time to manage his wife health related concerns and others.
The apex court on October 3 upheld the trial court conviction of life imprisonment to RJD leader Shukla and another accused Mantu Tiwari by partially setting aside Patna High Court’s 2014 verdict acquitting all the 8 accused in the case.
The court had asked both Munna Shukla and Tiwari to surrender before the authorities to serve the remainder of their respective sentences while acquitting the other six accused including the former Bihar parliamentarian Surajbhan Singh giving them the benefit of doubt as per the ruling of the high court.
“In so far as Surajbhan Singh, Mukesh Singh, Lallan Singh, Ram Niranjan Chauwdhary and Rajan Tiwari are concerned, we give them benefit of doubt and uphold their acquittal,” said the apex court on October 3.
“The conviction and sentence awarded to Mantu Tiwari and Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla by the trial court under section 302 and 307 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) are affirmed and restored,” added the SC’s bench.
After the SC turned down his plea, Shukla reportedly left his Muzaffarpur residence on Wednesday’s afternoon to surrender before the court.
The case was transferred to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the year 1999. In the year 2009 the trial court in its verdict sentenced all the eight accused in the case to life imprisonment. However, the Patna High Court overturned the trial court’s verdict and acquitted all the accused in 2014.
The CBI along with Prasad’s widow Rama Devi approached the apex court challenging the high court’s verdict in the year 2014. On August 22 this year the SC reserved the order on the appeals filed by Devi and CBI, the court pronounced its verdict on October 3, upholding the trial court conviction to two of the accused.
