INDIA: FORMER MP'S DEATH SENTENCE COMMUTED TO LIFE

the Patna High Court in India commuted the death sentence of former Lok Sabha MP Anand Mohan to life imprisonment and acquitted the six others in the former Gopalganj district magistrate G Krishnaiah murder case. A division bench comprising Justices Shiv Kirti Singh and S M Mafooz Alam held that "since Mohan has been accused of inciting the mob to kill the victim and had not personally murdered him, the case does not fall in the category of rarest of rare cases and so his death sentence is converted into life imprisonment," the court said. With regard to six others convicted of murdering Krishnaiah in 1994, the bench said, "since the prosecution failed to establish the charges against the appellants beyond reasonable doubt, they stand acquitted." Mohan, former MP from Sheohar, was awarded a life term under sections 302 (murder) and 109 (abetment of offence). Additional District and Sessions judge R S Rai awarded the death sentence to Mohan, Ahmed and Arun Kumar on October 3, 2007.