Patna, Oct 9 : The Patna High Court today granted bail to former MP Lovely Anand, who had been awarded life imprisonment by a lower court in connection with the lynching of Gopalganj District Magistrate G Krishnaiah in 1994.

Justices Shiva Kirti Singh and S M Mahfooz Alam granted Lovely bail after hearing senior counsel Kanhaiya Prasad.

Prasad appeared on behalf of Lovely and the State counsel Shameshwar Dayal.

Besides Lovely, the Patna Civil court on October 3 had awarded life imprisonment to Munna Shukla, Harendra and Shashi Shekhar.

Lovely’s husband and former parliamentarian Anand Mohan and co-conspirators Ahmed, Arun Kumar Sinha were awarded death sentence in connection with the case.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ram Krishna Rai had convicted the seven under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (rioting) and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs 50) of IPC.

Krishnaiah, a 1985-batch officer, was on his way back to his headquarters after a meeting at Hajipur, when he was attacked and mercilessly beaten to death by a mob in December 1994.

Krishnaiah was attacked to avenge the killing of Chhotan Shukla, an underworld don, who also worked for the now-defunct Bihar’s People’s Party (BPP).

The incident took place when Chhotan’s body was being taken for cremation.

Anand Mohan, who was then the BPP chief, and Lovely Anand, former MP from Vaishali, were present at the funeral procession.

Munna Shukla, the younger brother of Chhotan Shukla, former MLA from Bikramganj Akhlaq Ahmed, Shashi Shekhar and Arun Kumar Sinha were also taking part in the procession.

They were accused of inciting the mob to kill Krishnaiah. (ANI)