Bhagalpur: Nitish Kumar is a chief minister of “circumstances”, said former RJD MP Mohd Shahabuddin, who was released from a jail in Bihar this morning after a decade of imprisonment.
“My leader is Lalu Yadav,” said Shahabuddin, whose name has spelt terror in Bihar’s Siwan district since the late 1980’s.
Outside the Bhagalpur jail where Shahabuddin was lodged, thousands of supporters had gathered and a long entourage of SUVs reportedly escorted him back to his village Pratapur in Siwan district.
“Does anyone look scared here,” asked Shahabuddin outside the jail as his supporters started shouting slogans in his favour.
Patna High Court granted him bail on Wednesday in the much-publicised Rajiv Roshan murder case.
In a chilling incident, two brothers were killed in Siwan in 2004 by bathing them in acid. Their elder brother Rajiv Roshan who was an eyewitness in the case was shot dead in 2015.
Shahabuddin, a four-term Lok Sabha MP from Siwan and a member of the ruling RJD’s national executive in Bihar, has about 40 criminal cases against him related to murder, extortion, kidnapping and intimidation. He was in jail for 11 years.
A dozen of these cases are on trial stage, while in the rest, he has challenged lower court convictions and is out on bail.
BJP leader Sushil Modi has alleged that Shahabuddin has been released because of the Bihar government’s inaction in the present case.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was credited with ending Shahabuddin’s reign of terror in Siwan for the years that he was in power with BJP’s support.
Mr Modi has tweeted, “Shahabuddin managed bail because GOB didn’t even initiated trial which was mandated by H(igh) Court to complete in 9 months.”
“Now Lalu symbol of corruption will be on one side of Nitish & Shahabuddin symbol of terror on the other side…,” his tweet read.
Amid changing equations after an alliance between Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United and Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, JD(U) leader KC Tyagi said, “Shahabuddin is the leader of RJD – our alliance partner. I wouldn’t want to comment on it.”
“Shahabuddin has been released on bail and we mustn’t question the judgement of the courts and judiciary,” he added.
