Decades of dogged pursuit culminated in a Muzaffarpur court sentencing five to life for one of Bihar’s most chilling murders. The 1991 slaying of Kunwar Rai in Sivarahan Chaturbhuj village—marked by a woman tied to a tree and her brother gunned down—finally met its match in Judge Alok Kumar Pandey’s gavel.
Eyewitness Mohan Rai’s FIR detailed the August 9 horror: Baidyanath Rai’s gang, bristling with weapons from guns to bombs, seized his field for ploughing. When Basanti Devi objected, they pummeled her and secured her to a tree. Kunwar Rai’s heroic intervention ended in tragedy—three point-blank shots from Baidyanath, followed by the mob snapping his arm as he bled out.
Thirty-four years later, the court nailed Baidyanath, Rambalam, Mahanth, Ramchandra Paswan, and Sahdev Rai with life terms and hefty Rs 50,000 fines. Prosecutor Sunil Kumar Pandey’s airtight presentation of evidence from 13 named suspects clinched the case.
The village, once gripped by fear, now breathes easier. Mohan Rai spoke for his family: ‘Justice arrived late, but it arrived strong.’ Faces of the condemned fell as the sentences echoed, a stark close to a saga of savagery. This outcome reaffirms faith in the law’s long arm.