Shahabuddin Gets Life in Abduction, Murder Case
Siwan: May 8, 2007
A special court in Siwan Jail, on Tuesday, sentenced Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammed Shahabuddin to life imprisonment in the 1999 kidnapping/murder of a Communist Party of India (ML) activist Chhote Lal.
The sentence came three days after the Additional District and Sessions judge Gyaneshwar Prasad Srivastava held the Siwan MP guilty of abducting and subsequently murdering Chhote Lal, a CPI-ML activist.
Earlier in March, the same court convicted Shahabuddin of attacking the CPI-ML office in Siwan in 1998.
He was, however, acquitted in two other criminal charges, one relating to assaulting a man in 1997 and another in connection with a bomb blast in DAV College in Siwan 1991.
Shahabuddin still faces over three dozen criminal cases in various courts in Bihar.
Reacting to the verdict, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (U) leaders demanded immediate resignation of the MP saying he had lost the moral right to remain a member of the Parliament.
RJD president and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav though indicated that the Siwan MP may appeal against the verdict. "Everyone has the right to appeal but that would be up to the MP and his lawyers," he said.
Meanwhile, Shahabuddin is now faced with disqualification from contesting elections in future. According to section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, a person convicted for an offence and sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more would be disqualified from contesting elections in future.
He, however, is under no compulsion to resign from the Lok Sabha at least not until 2009, senior advocate Y. V. Giri said.
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