Patna High Court quashes criminal proceedings against Nitish Kumar in 28-year-old murder case

Patna: The Patna High Court set aside the criminal proceedings initiated against Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar by a lower court in a 28-year-old murder case on Friday. Justice A Amanullah passed the order on an application moved by Nitish, who heads the Janata Dal (United). Nitish had challenged the proceedings initiated against him by the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Barh, who took cognisance of an FIR lodged at the Pandarak police station in Patna district. In the FIR lodged on 16 November, 1991, Nitish, who was then the Samata Party MP from Barh, was named as an accused, along with others, for the killing of one Sitaram Singh, who was killed during the Lok Sabha polls that year. The ACJM, Barh had initiated criminal proceedings against Nitish in 2009, which was challenged by the chief minister before the Patna High Court the same year. Justice Amanullah, who had reserved his order on the petition on 31 January, quashed the proceedings on Friday. It comes as a relief to the chief minister because the Opposition parties, especially the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), had been targeting him over his name figuring in the murder case.