Patna, Aug 12 - A Bihar court Wednesday sentenced eight people, including former parliamentarian Surajbhan Singh and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) legislator Munna Shukla, to life imprisonment for the 1998 murder of former minister Brij Bihari Prasad in 1998.

Another JD-U legislator, Shashi Kumar Rai, also convicted for his involvement in the crime, was given two years' imprisonment.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Vijay Prakash of the Patna Civil Court found the nine people guilty of the murder of Prasad.

Prasad, a minister in the Rabri Devi government, was gunned down by heavily armed men inside the premises of the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences here on June 13, 1998, when he was taking an evening walk. He was then under judicial custody in connection with a fake degree scam and was undergoing treatment.

Prasad's wife Rama Devi, a former minister, is now the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Sheohar.

Surajbhan Singh, Shukla and Tiwari face several other criminal charges, including those for murder, kidnapping and loot.

Surajbhan Singh was sentenced to life imprisonment last year in the murder of a farmer in Begusarai district.