PATNA: The Supreme Court order upholding conviction of former MLA and senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla and one other in connection with the 1998 murder of former minister Brij Bihari has heated up the political temperature in Bihar. Munna Shukla, former MLA from Lalganj in Vaishali district, unsuccessfully contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Vaishali on the ticket of Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal. He was pitted against sitting Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) MP Veena Devi.While Munna Shukla and Mantu Tiwari have been awarded life imprisonment in the case and asked to surrender within 15 days, former Balia MP Surajbhan Singh alias Suraj Singh and six others have been acquitted for lack of evidence. In 2014, the Patna high court had acquitted all the accused. Brij Bihari, then a minister in Rabri Devi government, was shot dead by armed men in the premises of Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) under Shashtrinagar police station in Patna on June 13, 1998. He was undergoing treatment in judicial custody. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested Brij Bihari Prasad in April 1998 in connection with merit scam. The SC verdict in the murder case has come as a major jolt to the state’s main opposition RJD. Munna Shukla, who comes from Upper caste Bhumihar, is an influential leader of RJD in Vaishali and Muzaffarpur region. He is a native of Khanjahachak village (Jalalpur) in Vaishali district. “RJD fielded Munna Shukla from Vaishali with a view to creating a division in the Bhumihar votes but people from his own caste didn’t favour him (Shukla). As a result, Veena Devi, the two-time MP from Vaishali, retained the seat even in 2024 Lok Sabha election,” said Manohar Prasad, a resident of Lalganj. Munna is the younger brother of don-turned politician Kaushalendra Shukla alias Chotan Shukla, who was gunned down by armed men near Brahmapura overbridge in Muzaffarpur district while returning from canvassing on December 4, 1994. Chotan was set to contest upcoming assembly polls from Kesaria in East Champaran district on the ticket of erstwhile Bihar People’s Party (BPP) led by former MP Anand Mohan. Brij Bihari Prasad, RJD MLA from Adapur in East Champaran district, was blamed for Chotan’s murder. People believe that Brij Bihari Prasad was emerging as a prominent backward leader after the killing of former MLA Devendra Nath Dubey, a day before the repoll on some polling booths in Motihari Lok Sabha election held in 1998. Dubey had contested the Lok Sabha election against RJD candidate Rama Devi, wife of Brij Bihari Prasad. Rama Devi emerged victorious from the seat but killing of Devendra Dubey led to animosity between Dubey’s supporters and those of Brij Bihari Prasad. The murder of Chotan Shukla in Muzaffarpur on December 4, 1998, forced his supporters to take revenge of the incident. Hence, the conspiracy to eliminate Brij Bihari Prasad was hatched, which was successfully executed on June 13, 1998. A notorious criminal of Uttar Pradesh, Sri Prakash Shukla, was hired for the purpose as it was an arduous task to kill him in the hospital. Brij Bihari was provided five commandos and four personnel of Bihar Military Police (BMP) for his round the clock security. Shukla, a dare-devil shooter, was assigned the task. He spent several weeks as a patient in the IGIMS to keep a close watch on the movement of Brij Bihari. On the fateful day, he along with others shot dead Brij Bihari and his bodyguard when he had gone for evening stroll. Sri Prakash Shukla, Surajbhan Singh (former MP), Lallan Singh, Mukesh Singh, Ram Niranjan Choudhary, Munna Shukla, Mantu Tiwari, Bhupendra Dubey (former MLA), Rajan Tiwari, Satish Pandey were among the accused in the case lodged with Shashtri Nagar police station in Patna. The case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation after the deceased’s wife Rama Devi alleged that her husband’s murder was a fallout of political conspiracy, and he was killed at the behest of some influential leader. Rama Devi later joined BJP and won Lok Sabha election from Sheohar in 2014 and 2019. Altogether nine accused were put to trial. The lower court convicted eight of them–Surajbhan Singh, Mukesh Singh, Lallan Singh, mantu Tiwari, Captain Sunil, Ram Niranjan Choudhary, Shashi Kumar Rai and Munna Shukla–(as one of the named accused had died) and awarded life sentence on August 12, 2009. In contrary, the Patna high court acquitted them for lack of evidence in July 2014. Mantu Tiwari, a resident of Kudarkat village under Chauradano police station limit in East Champaran district, is the nephew (sister’s son) of slain leader Devendra Dubey. Both Shukla and Tiwari have been asked to surrender in court in 15 days. Sri Prakash was killed in an encounter with Uttar Pradesh police in September 1998. The SC verdict came on Thursday after the CBI and deceased’s wife Rama Devi challenged the high court’s order.
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