Supreme Court Sentences Munna Shukla to Life

The Supreme Court has sentenced former MLA Munna Shukla and Mantu Tiwari to life imprisonment for their roles in the 1998 murder of former Bihar minister Brij Bihari Prasad, partially overturning an earlier Patna High Court acquittal. The court's bench, consisting of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Sanjay Kumar, and R Mahadevan, found the charges under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) sufficiently proven. They ordered the convicts to surrender within 15 days. However, the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal of six other accused, including former MP Surajbhan Singh, citing a lack of substantial evidence. The appeal leading to this ruling was initiated by former BJP MP Rama Devi, the late minister's widow, alongside the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). This case reflects a long history of legal challenges, with the initial conviction in 2009 being overturned by the High Court in 2014 due to insufficient evidence.