 "Mohammad Shahabuddin")
The Bihar government is preparing to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the bail granted to controversial Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) strongman Mohammad Shahabuddin by the Patna High Court, after it faced flak, especially from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), over his release from jail.
The state government is facing further pressure after Mohammad Kaif, the absconding sharpshooter wanted in the murder of Bihar senior scribe Rajdev Ranjan, was spotted with Shahabuddin.
The BJP has pounced on the Nitish Kumar-led government and questioned Kumar's inability to arrest the accused.
'Bahubali' from Siwan
The Siwan district of Bihar is where Shahabuddin has spent most of his political career, other than prison. He won the Siwan Lok Sabha constituency in 1998, 1999 and 2004.
As Aditi Phadnis writes for the Business Standard, Siwan borders Gopalganj, the village of Lalu Prasad's in-laws. Rabri Devi's brother Sadhu Yadav was elected to the Lok Sabha from this constituency.
Shahabuddin represented Jiradei in the Bihar Legislative Assembly before he became Prasad's official RJD candidate for the Siwan Lok Sabha seat in 1996.
Further, it was Prasad himself who encouraged and supported the rise of Shahabuddin as a Bahubali (strongman) in Siwan.
Shahabuddin went on to portray himself as a modern-day Robin Hood. He would provide everything from money required for the marriage of a daughter to financial help for a medical crisis to the local people.
In return, Siwan was a tightly sewn-up town where you could not talk about Shahabuddin because you were never sure who was listening.
As Shahabuddin's clout grew, Prasad began getting a bit tired of him. He was becoming just too ambitious and intrusive. Shahabuddin even worked against Sadhu Yadav in the election to the Legislative Council.
Crimes and punishment
It was during the 2005 President's rule in the state that Shahabuddin's fortunes took a turn for the worse. He was thrown in jail. His home was raided and on the basis of recoveries, case after case was slapped on him. These were in addition to the ones already pending against him. Subsequently, the government in Patna changed. Special courts were formed for speedy trial of the cases against him. By the time Nitish Kumar came in office, the state had reasserted its authority and Shahabuddin was exactly the kind of person the administration headed by Kumar was trying to put away.
After his release on Saturday, he was, however, quick to add that it was the court which sent him to jail and the court again which ordered his release from the jail.
Last week, Shahabuddin got his final reprieve when the Patna High Court granted him bail in the case of the murder of a witness in the 2004 killing of two brothers in Siwan. He has received bail in nearly 12 other cases earlier.
The latest criminal controversy he has been mired in revolves around the killing of journalist Rajdeo Ranjan.
Shahabuddin's close associate Laddan Mian is in jail in connection with the scribe's murder and though the enquiry into it has so far not named the RJD strongman, he was shifted to Bhagalpur divisional jail from Siwan a little after the incident.
After reaching Siwan, Shahabuddin said that he would meet Ranjan's family.
The Nitish Kumar government had recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the murder on demand of the scribe's family.
In December last year, a Siwan court sentenced the former MP and three others to life imprisonment in the 2004 double murder case. Satish Raj (25) and Girish Raj (20), sons of a businessman, were abducted and killed on August 16, 2004. They were drenched in acid before being killed. Rajesh Roshan, the third brother of those killed, escaped and was an eyewitness. He was gunned down in 2014, three days before he was to give testimony in court.
Shahabuddin has faced at least half a dozen cases of attempted murder, including firing on a police officer and preventing him from carrying out his duties. He has been acquitted in 14 cases of heinous crime because the witnesses suddenly – and overnight – turned hostile.
Shahabuddin was given bail in the Satish Raj-Girish Raj murder case in March this year. The state tried but could not prevent bail.
Political future?
As Aditi Phadnis writes for the Business Standard, while including Shahabuddin in the national executive of the RJD earlier this year, the party said: "Shahabuddin's appeal is pending in a higher court and thus his politics should not be dismantled because the Bharatiya Janata Party desires so in the brazen absence of any legitimate political instrument...."
The national executive is the top decision making body of the party.
After his release, when asked by newsmen whether his prolonged jail term had harmed him politically, Shahabuddin said, "A little damage has happened."
His wife Heena Sahab lost to Om Prakash Yadav of BJP in the last parliamentary election from Siwan in 2014.
Political turmoil over his release
The RJD strongman, for his part, walked out of prison on bail on Saturday after 11 years with much fanfare and praised party chief Lalu Prasad while making it clear that there was no love lost between him and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
"For me Lalu Prasad is the leader" and Nitish Kumar is the chief minister "circumstantially", said Shahabuddin, as he emerged out of the Bhagalpur divisional jail and left in a convoy of three hundred vehicles for Siwan.
Shahabuddin's "circumstantial" chief minister barb found backing in RJD vice-president Raghubansh Prasad Singh, leading to a strong response from the Congress, which said that the RJD could walk out if they are not comfortable in the coalition. The events surrounding Shahabuddin's release might have exposed some fissures in the grand alliance in the state, which defeated the BJP to take charge of the state in 2015.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Tuesday attempted to play down talk of cracks emerging in the coalition and said that Nitish Kumar was the leader of the coalition and the state. However, he defended Shahabuddin and claimed that the latter had made no derogatory remarks against the chief minister.
