Supreme Court to examine Shahabuddin bail Monday

The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a special leave petition on on September 19 seeking to cancel the bail granted to RJD leader Mohammed Shahabuddin.

Noted lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan filed the appeal on behalf of Chandrakeshwar Prasad, whose three sons were murdered allegedly at the behest of Mr Shahabuddin.

Mr Bhushan made a “mention” before a Bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice A.M. Kanwilkar for early listing, and the CJI agreed to post the matter for hearing on Monday. Later, the Bihar government also challenged the Patna high court order granting bail to Mr Shahabuddin, raising similar arguments. It is likely that both the petitions will be heard together.

The petition said that the high court did not consider the fact that Mr Shahabuddin was a dreaded criminal, who has absolutely no regard for the law, and granting bail to him in the present case would let him come out of jail, even though he was still facing trial in many of the cases lodged against him.

The petition said that, as per the rules of the high court, it was mandatory for the accused to mention his criminal antecedents while applying for bail. These were obviously not considered by the high court in the case in question, the petition said.

Apart from the present case, as per the information available to the petitioner, Mr Shahabuddin was booked in at least 58 criminal cases, out of which he has been convicted in at least eight. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment in at least two cases, including in the case of the twin murder.

The petitioner said that the charges which Mr Shahabuddin is facing include murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping or abducting with intent to murder, extortion, theft, rioting with deadly weapon and treason. He is listed as a history sheeter—Type A (a hardened criminal with a history of crime) in the Hussain Ganj police station at Siwan.

The petitioner said that Mr Shahabuddin was considered to be a very influential person in Siwan, as he is two times MLA and four times MP from the constituency. Being convicted in many criminal cases, he has been debarred from contesting since the .

Apparently, some of the cases could not be proved against him for lack of evidence as sometimes he managed to influence the prosecution or sometimes witnesses were too scared of deposing against him. Many times it has been found that the witnesses including the family members of the deceased turned hostile.

The petitioner said that it was strange that the Patna HC decided to grant bail to Shahabuddin when he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of two of his sons, Girish and Satish, in Siwan in 2004 by bathing them in acid. The third son, Rajiv, the sole witness to the chilling murders, was killed in June 2014 while on his way to depose in court.

Listing the main grounds for cancellation of bail, the petitioner said till now the case has not been committed to the Session Court and Md. Shahabuddin has been transferred from Siwan Jail to Bhagalpur Jail vide order dated 20.05.2016 for 6 months, hence, committal to the Session Court is not possible in near future. Further there is no direct allegation against the accused as he was not the assailant. It is only under the charge of conspiracy, he has been suffering in custody since 27.11.2014 and he has already been granted bail in all other pending cases. Bhushan also raised questions about the prosecution not opposing the bail plea by bringing all relevant facts of cases pending against Shahabuddin to the HC’s notice. Hence he sought quashing of the HC order and to cancel Shahabuddin’s bail.