Shriprakash Shukla shot Brijbihari: The murder of former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's veteran minister Brijbihari Prasad was no small incident. In other words, this was the incident that truly brought the crime or jungle raj in Bihar in front of the country and the world. Whenever the answer to the question of Brijbihari's murder will be sought, former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar and former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav will also be seen holding its roots. Brij Bihari Prasad was murdered on 13 June 1998 and the Supreme Court's verdict in this case also came on Thursday, October 3, 2024. In this, Munna Shukla and Mantu Tiwari have been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
It is the right time, the right season, and the right custom to dig into the roots of this incident. Let us try to find out why Munna Shukla and Shriprakash Shukla killed Brijbihari Prasad. Let us start from the beginning and first try to know who Brijbihari Prasad was. Brijbihari Prasad was born in a normal family living in Ada and his father was the caretaker of the royal family's properties in Ada. Since he was very good at studies from the beginning, he not only topped matriculation but also studied civil engineering and became an engineer in the PWD. At that time, people of the Bhumihar community had a lot of influence on this department.
Many times Bhumihars had even put a gun on his temple to get the contract. Tired of such incidents, Brijbihari left the government job. At that time there was terror of Naxalites in Ada and no one was in a position to open mouth against them. In such a situation, Brijbihari saw an opportunity and started politics against Naxalites by joining some youth of Rajput community with him. Then he came in contact with the state president Raghunath Jha of Chandrashekhar's party and also became MLA in 1990.
At that time, a total of 12 MLAs including Anand Mohan and Brijbihari Prasad were elected from this party in the Bihar assembly elections. After this election, Lalu Yadav was a strong contender for the post of Chief Minister, but the number of MLAs was not enough to make him CM. In such a situation, Chandrashekhar asked his party's state president Raghunath Jha to support Lalu. Thus the government was formed under the leadership of Lalu Yadav. However, at that time Lalu Yadav did not have good influence in the Center and efforts were made to topple his government.
When Lalu Yadav got this news, he suddenly expanded the cabinet. A total of 74 ministers were made. Brijbihari Prasad was also included in them. As soon as he became a minister, Brijbihari became close to Lalu Yadav. After this, the petty crimes that his people used to commit secretly, they started doing openly and Brijbihari's name started ringing in North Bihar. Meanwhile, in the year 1993, there was a clash between Lalu Yadav and Anand Mohan inside the assembly. During this, MLA Yamuna Yadav from Kesaria came forward from Lalu Yadav's side and threw a mike at Anand Mohan.
At the same time, Anand Mohan announced that Muzaffarpur's strongman Bhutkun Shukla will contest elections from Kesaria. After this announcement by Anand Mohan, on one hand Bhutkun Shukla started doing politics in Kesaria, while Brijbihari Prasad felt that this would reduce his influence. Therefore, he asked Bhutkun Shukla to step back, but Anand Mohan had a hand on his head too. In such a situation, on 3 December 1994, goons wearing police uniforms murdered Bhutkun Shukla. It was alleged that Brijbihari Prasad had done this incident. After this, the people of Anand Mohan and Bhutkun Shukla's gang became very angry.
In this anger, the funeral procession of Bhutkun Shukla was going out the next day, there was a lot of ruckus and Anand Mohan was walking in the front. As soon as this procession reached Gopalganj, the DM G Krishnaiya tried to stop the ruckus. During this time, the mob killed the DM. Anand Mohan has also served 14 years of life imprisonment in this case. After this, his younger brother Chotan Shukla took over the command of Bhutkun Shukla's gang. But after a few days, Chotan Shukla was also murdered. At that time, while applying tilak with the ashes of Chotan Shukla's funeral pyre, his younger brother Munna Shukla had sworn that he would definitely take revenge for the murder of both his brothers.
This was the story of Munna Shukla, but if Suraj Bhan Singh is not mentioned in this context, the story will be incomplete. Suraj Bhan also comes from a normal family in a small village near Mokama town. It is said that Suraj Bhan's elder brother was in CRPF and his father wanted to send him to the army as well. Since destiny had something else in store for him, Suraj Bhan fell into bad company and started committing crimes. One day he even demanded extortion from the rich man in whose firm Suraj Bhan's father worked. After this incident, Suraj Bhan's father committed suicide and a few days later, his elder brother also died.
There was no one to stop Suraj Bhan and he started getting notorious in the underworld of Bihar. At that time, there was a united Bihar and there were three famous gangs. One of them was Ashok Samrat from Begusarai, the second was Brijbihari from Ada and the third gang was of Suraj Bhan from Mokama. Since Ashok Samrat died in a police encounter, Suraj Bhan was the only thorn left in Brijbihari's path. At that time, Brijbihari Prasad was a minister and it is said that he got Suraj Bhan arrested and sent to jail in the case of murder of one of Ashok Samrat's associates. He also gave a contract to kill Suraj Bhan by poisoning him in the jail itself.
By that time, Munna Shukla of Vaishali, who was burning with the fire of revenge for the murder of two brothers, had come in contact with Suraj Bhan and gangster Shriprakash Shukla of Gorakhpur. Here, as soon as Suraj Bhan got the news of the conspiracy to kill him, he immediately contacted Shriprakash Shukla through Munna Shukla. After this, on 11 June 1998, Shriprakash Shukla reached Patna with his companions Anuj Pratap Singh, Sudhir Tripathi. Here Munna Shukla provided him AK-47 and two pistols and then these people carried out the Brijbihari murder case on 13 June 1998.
