Once transferred to Tihar, Shahabuddin will face trial in 46 criminal cases via video conferencing.
Highlights
- Over 40 criminal cases pending against the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader
- Move him to Tihar jail to ensure he doesn't get special treatment: Court
- Shahabuddin will stand trial in pending cases via video conferencing
The Supreme Court has put an end to the privileges enjoyed by jailed RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin and ordered that the controversial politician be shifted from a jail in Bihar's Siwan district to the national capital's Tihar Central Jail.
The top court, that had heard petitioners complain about intimidation of witnesses at Mr Shahabuddin's instance - has ordered that the four-time MP from Siwan stand trial in pending cases through video conferencing from Tihar jail. He has 46 criminal cases pending against him.
Asha Ranjan, wife of slain journalist Rajdeo Ranjan and Siwan-based Chandrakeshwar Prasad, whose three sons were killed, had moved the court to ask that the RJD strongman be shifted to Delhi's Tihar Central Jail for a fair trial, pleading that there was no way this could happen if he was around.
"A fair trial is not what the accused wants in the name of fair trial. Fair trial must soothe the ultimate justice which is sought individually," a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Amitava Roy observed, directing Bihar government to transfer Mr Shahabuddin to Tihar within a week.
The bench also asked the Patna High Court to take a call on all cases within four months where proceedings had been stayed on one ground or the other.
It was at the top court's intervention that Mr Shahabuddin - who was released after spending 11 years behind bars in September - was quickly sent back to jail within weeks. But it is a well-known how Mr Shahabuddin has had a free run in Bihar's prisons. Just last month, someone posted a selfie taken by the jailed leader on social media showing his changed look. Prisoners aren't allowed access to mobile phones, according to jail rules.
Shahabuddin swears by RJD chief Lalu Yadav who brought him from a world of crime into politics back in the late 1980s; he contested his first election in 1990 and never looked back. Mr Yadav's party - which has an alliance with once-bitter rival Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (U) - won a larger share of seats in the 2015 assembly elections but let Mr Kumar lead the government.
When the Bihar government was asked by the top court to respond to the petitioners' concerns, the Nitish Kumar government had submitted that it was not "averse" to shifting Shahabuddin to Tihar Jail. It was during Mr Kumar's earlier stint as the chief minister - then as an ally of the BJP - that the police had cracked down on Mr Shahabuddin's reign of terror in Siwan.