RJD MP Shahabuddin has Hizb links
by Ajay Kumar

    Patna (Bihar): Jammu and Kashmir Police have reportedly contacted their counterparts in Bihar with a request to allow them to question Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Mohammad Shahabuddin on his alleged links with the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen. Shahabuddin, who has been in judicial custody since his arrest last year in connection with various murder and abduction cases, is now being accused of receiving two consignments of arms from Kupwara in the early part of 2000, including AK assault rifles. Bihar Police, according to official sources in Jammu and Kashmir is reluctant to divulge the whereabouts of the MP, saying that he is untraceable.

     A Hizbul Mujahideen militant arrested by the police recently has confirmed during interrogation that he had supplied AK rifles and pistols to Shahabuddin in Delhi. Hizbul Mujahideen Mushtaq Ahmed revealed that Shahabuddin had visited Kupwara town on three occasions during which he had fixed a deal for supply of arms and ammunition to him in Delhi. A report in this regard has been forwarded to the Union Home Ministry. the police is finally preparing a dossier on the criminal antecedents of controversial RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, who, perhaps, best personifies criminalisation of Indian politics. Shahabuddin is lodged in the Bhagalpur jail. After his recent arrest in Delhi, the police are preparing a dossier on him as desired by the Patna High Court. Police sources say that the Siwan police has been entrusted with the task as 47 cases relating to murder, kidnapping, illegal possession of arms, filing a wrong affidavit and recovery of foreign currencies have been reportedly registered against him between 1985 and 2005. Shahabuddin is new in Bhagalpur jail, and spends his time reading books, including those written by Swami Vivekananda.

     Last year, the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Siwan rejected a petition filed on behalf of Shahabuddin on November 16, seeking his transfer to Siwan jail from Bhagalpur. Siwan is known as his hometurf where he is like an uncrowned Sultan and where he reportedly ran a parallel government. Even though he was away from his native village of Siwan for over two years, he had contested and won the parliamentary elections in 2004 when behind bars. Last time he was released from the Beur jail in Patna in February, after languishing there for 18 months in connection with the murder an activist of CPI(ML). After his release, he reportedly went all out to ensure the formation of an RJD led government in Bihar after the February poll outcome had resulted in a fractured mandate. But he failed to get the magic number for Lalu Prasad Yadav. The fugitive MP created a furore in October 2005 when he reportedly appeared for a law examination in September from Muzaffapur in Bihar. In October, his name was deleted from the voters list of Siwan on the orders of the Election Commission. Then the Siwan District Magistrate had ordered registration of a sedition case against Shahabuddin following the recovery of "Pakistan-made" cartridges during raids at his house in Pratapur village. The first case was registered against him in 1985. By the time he was elected to the Bihar Assembly as an Independent from the Jiradie Assembly seat in 1990, there were reportedly 12 cases against him, including three of murder. He was re-elected to the Assembly in 1995. Shahabuddin was first elected to Parliament in 1996, not as a RJD candidate but on the Janata Dal ticket from the Siwan constituency. According to informed sources in the police, the rise of Shahabuddin's muscle power was largely due to the support he received from sections of minority, as well as upper caste Hindus, mainly landlords, who were protected by him against the movement by the CPI(ML) and other parties demanding land reforms.

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