Former Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) MP Prabhunath Singh has been sentenced to lifetime imprisonment by the Supreme Court on Friday in a 1995 double murder case. As per media reports, the latest development came after Singh was found guilty of shooting down two persons, for allegedly voting against him in 1995.
The apex court on Friday stated that this case was an "exceptionally painful episode of our criminal justice system".
On August 18, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath convicted Singh of the offences under Sections 302 and 307 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Besides the verdict of life time imprisonment, the Supreme Court also directed the Bihar government to provide Rs 10 lakh as ex-gratia to the families of both victims.
The double murder case
Back in 1995, the double murder case in question involved the killing of two people on the day of polling for assembly elections in Chapra in Bihar's Saran district in March 1995.
The top court, while convicting Singh, a multiple-term former MP from Bihar's Maharajganj, had observed there was not even an iota of doubt that Singh was instrumental in making all possible efforts to "wipe out" the evidence against him.
Prabhunath Singh: The ex-MP
The erstwhile RJD MP Prabhunath Singh has been a member of the 12th, 13th and 14th Lok Sabha who represented the Masrakh Assembly Constituency from 1985 to 1995, and the Maharajganj Lok Sabha constituency of Bihar from 1998 to 2009.
Back in 2013, Singh secured victory in the bypoll and remained a Member of Parliament until 2014.
