NEW DELHI, Sept 1:
The Supreme Court today sentenced former Lok Sabha MP from Bihar Prabhunath Singh to life imprisonment for killing two people on the day of polling for Assembly elections in Bihar’s Saran district in 1995.
A bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said Singh, a multiple-term former MP from Bihar’s Maharajganj, and State of Bihar will have to pay Rs 10 lakh each compensation separately to the families of the two deceased and five lakh each to an injured victim of the case.
“Never seen a case like this before,” the bench, also comprising Justices A S Oka and Vikram Nath, observed without elaborating.
On August 18, the apex court had convicted Singh while overturning the orders of the trial court and the Patna High Court acquitting him in the case.
On Friday, the matter was fixed for hearing arguments on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to the convict.
At the outset, the bench observed, “There are two options only, there is no third option available…. Life (sentence) or death, these are the only two options”.
The counsel representing Singh said it is not a case where the court may consider granting death sentence.
“Do you seriously feel that we are considering death penalty?” the bench asked.
The counsel said concurrent acquittals by the courts below have been reversed by the apex court in this case and they have also filed a petition seeking review of the top court verdict convicting Singh.
The bench observed the review petition will come up for consideration in-chambers.
The apex court said it is inclined to award compensation and the State will also have to compensate the victims.
“Life sentence, 10 lakhs each for both the deceased and five lakhs for the injured, both by the respondent number two (Singh) and by the state separately,” the bench said, adding, “We have already announced that, the orders you will get”.
On the apex court’s query about Singh’s age, one of the advocates said he is 70-year-old.
While convicting Singh in the matter, the apex court had observed that it was dealing with a case which was an “exceptionally painful episode of our criminal justice system”.
The top court 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.
It had said the prosecution machinery, as also the presiding officer of the trial court, were used as a tool of his “high handedness”.(PTI)
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