Patna: HC upholds life imprisonment of four in former JNUSU president Chandrashekhar murder case

PATNA: The Patna high court on Friday upheld judgements of two separate lower courts in which four convicts were awarded life sentence in the sensational murder case of former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students’ union president Chandrashekhar Prasad murdered more than two decades back. He was also an active office-bearer of CPI (ML) at the time of his assassination.
The convicts are - Dhruv Prasad Jaiswal alias Dhruv Sao, Iliyas Waris alias Mantu Khan, Sheikh Munna alias Munna Khan and Rustam Khan.
A division bench of Justice Aditya Kumar Trivedi and Justice Vinod Kumar Sinha had reserved the judgement on February 26 after conclusion of arguments from the side of the four convicts who had challenged their life imprisonment and written statement submitted on behalf of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before finally dismissing the appeals of convicts for setting the sentence aside on Friday.
Dhruv, Iliyas and Sheikh were awarded life imprisonment by Patna’s special CBI court of judge Birendra Kumar Pandey on March 23, 2012 while Rustam’s trial had run separately and he was later also awarded life imprisonment by the court of additional district and session judge – XIV Chaudhary BK Rai on November 9, 2012.
Chandrashekhar was addressing a public gathering in town area of Siwan district on March 31, 1997 when assailants had shot him dead in broad daylight. Another CPI (ML) leader Shyam Narayan Yadav and a roadside vegetable seller Bhutali Miyan were also killed from bullets fired by assailants meant to kill the JNU leader.
The public gathering was meant for appealing people to participate on large scale in a bandh called on April 1, 1997. Initially, the case was investigated by Bihar police, but was later handed over to the federal agency whose special crime branch of Delhi investigated the case.
Altogether six persons - including one Mohammad Riyazuddin and don-turned-politician and incarcerated former RJD MP Shahbuddin - were named accused in the FIR lodged in connection with the killing. However, the CBI did not file chargesheet against him in the case and Ryazuddin died in course of trial. Dhruv was arrested in the case from Shahabuddin’s residence in Siwan.
While a battery of lawyers like Supreme Court senior advocate Surendra Singh, Patna high court senior advocate Akhileshwar Prasad Singh, Ajay Thakur and Ramadhar Shekhar argued for the convicts against their life sentence, CBI standing counsel Bipin Kumar Sinha, along with counsel Pramod Kumar for the slain leader, argued for the judgement.
Sinha said the CBI took over the case after registering FIR on August 7, 1997. “In the FIR, it was mentioned that all four convicts along with Riyazuddin had indiscriminately opened fire on the stage from where Chandrashekhar was addressing the gathering,” he added.