Chandrashekar Prasad (20 September 1964 – 31 March 1997),[1] popularly known as Chandu[2] and Comrade Chandrashekhar[3] was a student leader and later an activist affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation.

[5] On 31 March 1997, he was assassinated by sharpshooters allegedly in the employ of Mohammad Shahabuddin of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, while addressing street corner meetings in the district town of Siwan, Bihar in support of a strike.

His mother, Kaushalya Devi states that she only got ₹150 (equivalent to ₹5,800 or US$67 in 2023) as compensation for her husband's service to the forces but made sure her son was educated well.

During the meeting, he was killed in a mass shooting along with another activist, Shyam Narayan Yadav and a hawker Bhutele Miyan.

In response, Sadhu Yadav, a leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal had allegedly ordered a mass shooting on the student protesters by the police.

The All India Students Association also demanded the arrest of Sadhu Yadav and capital punishment for Mohammad Shahabuddin.

[7] Following the trials, the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation states that the CBI treated the crime like a case of random shooting instead of a political assassination.

The party maintains the position that no justice was granted with the verdict where a young activist was killed by a sitting member of Parliament and only his hitmen were sentenced.

[16] In 2010, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt initiated a project to create a biopic of Chandrashekhar Prasad titled Chandu.

[17] In 2013, the project was scrapped due to opposition to its production and concerns of potential legal hurdles as a result of the cases related to the assassination being sub judice at the time.