Judge quits Siwan after Shahabu bail

Wrote To HC Seeking Transfer, Nitish Govt Posts Guards For His Security

The judge who sentenced RJD member Mohammad Shahabuddin to life imprisonment in a double murder case was transferred from Siwan just two days after the former Lok Sabha member secured bail from the Patna high court in another murder case.

Additional district and sessions judge (ADJ) Ajay Kumar Shrivastava had himself sought the transfer through a letter he wrote to the HC. Though the exact contents of the letter are not known, sources said he felt unsafe in Siwan following Shahabuddin's release. The Nitish government in Bihar has provided security to him.

Shahabuddingot bail on September 7 and walked out of jail on September 10. Taking cognisance of Shrivastava's letter, the HC issued a notification on September 9 for his transfer to Patna in the same capacity.

Shrivastava had headed the special court constituted for the trial of cases against Shahabuddin. Mandated to function from inside the Si wan jail, where Shahabuddin was lodged from his arrest in 2005 to May this year, the special court had, on December 11 last year, sentenced the former MP to life imprisonment for the murder of two brothers, Satish Raj and Girish Raj. The duo was drenched in acid at Sha habuddin's village, Pratappur, in August 2004.

Their elder brother Rajeev Raushan, an eyewitness to their killings, was also murdered on June 16, 2014, three days before he was to depose before a trial court. It was in the Raushan murder case that the Patna HC had granted bail to Shahabuddin.

JD(U) spokesman Ajay Alok said the state government would provide security to Shrivastava. “A sense of fear has gripped residents of Siwan ever since Shahabuddin reached home,“ Alok said, quoting from a report sent to the state government by the Siwan administration.

“We have provided secu rity to at least 20 people since Shahabuddin's release,“ Siwan SP Saurabh Kumar Sah had told TOI last week.

Siwan police have also enhanced the security cover of the murdered trio's elderly parents and the family of journalist Rajdeo Ranjan, in whose killing Shahabuddin is a suspect.

Shahabuddinwas shifted from Siwan jail to Bhagalpur central jail in May , just days after Ranjan was murdered.

Ex-MP misses court date, cites HC bar

RJD strongman Mohd Shahabuddin failed to appear before a Jamshedpur court on Tuesday for deposition in a triple-murder case from 1989. His counsel Kewal Kishan said the Patna high court, while granting Shahabuddin conditional bail on September 7, had prevented him from going out of Siwan.“My client will seek permission from the HC and, upon receiving approval, depose before the court of the first additional district judge in the next hearing, fixed for October 6,“ Kishan added. The judge accepted the request. Shahabuddin and seven others are suspects in the murder of Youth Congress member Pradeep Mishra and his two aides, Anand Rao and Janardhan Chaubey, 27 years ago. The trio was shot dead in a car near the Tata Steel power house in Jamshedpur. Shahabuddin was allegedly hired as a shooter to execute the crime. B Sridhar.

(TOI)