For Shahabuddin, Bihar district jail is no punishment

No matter how ironic it appears, in recent memory, Mohammad Shahabuddin - the dreaded and convicted former MP from Siwan - behaved like a law-abiding citizen as he rushed to the district court on September 30 and surrendered exactly an hour after the Supreme Court cancelled his bail.

In fact, his lawyer urged the Siwan Court to accept his surrender and submitted an undertaking citing the the Supreme Court's order as a copy of the judgment had not reached the district court by then. How impressive!

If this were not enough, Saheb - as Shahabuddin is known in his fiefdom Siwan - also did not forget to wear a helmet, as he rode a Bullet to reach the court for his surrender. It is not known if Shahabuddin cared for a helmet out of his hitherto unseen respect for traffic rules or just to dodge the cops from arresting him after the SC order. Or was it his rush to reach the Siwan jail before the Nitish Kumar government could think of lodging him somewhere else?

It has been more than a fortnight and Shahabuddin has had a largely uneventful stay at the Siwan jail. But that's only part of the story we have been presented. If you dig deeper, a clear violation of the prison manual becomes apparent in letting the don stay in Siwan jail, which has always been his preferred haven.

Section 59 of the Prison Act 1894 in Bihar's updated Prison Manual, 2012 states that a prisoner sentenced to imprisonment for periods exceeding five years will be confined to the central prisons. Shahabuddin, a convict in ten cases, who has earned life imprisonment in two cases and 10 years rigorous imprisonment in yet another case, should be lodged in one of the eight central prisons in Bihar - and Siwan is not one of them.

But, Shahabuddin continues to remain in a district jail in a flagrant violation of Bihar prison rules, while the authorities have opted to maintain a studied silence.

In fact, since his arrest in 2005, Shahabuddin has largely remained in the same prison. He had twice been shifted to the Bhagalpur and Gaya central jails for a period of six months each during the last Lok Sabha and Assembly elections on the ground that his presence in Siwan would affect the poll situation.

On both occasions, he was brought back to Siwan jail soon after elections - on November 24 last year, immediately after Nitish Kumar's mahagathbandhan government assumed charge. Shahabuddin was again shifted out of Siwan and lodged in the Bhagalpur jail for the third time in May this year after the killing of Siwan journalist Rajdeo Ranjan. On September 10, he secured bail and walked out of the Bhagalpur jail, only to return to Siwan after his bail was cancelled by the Supreme Court.

But why is Shahabuddin so fond of Siwan jail? Is it homesickness, or because his writ runs large at home?

When the Siwan police scanned the mobile phones active in the fruit market area on Siwan's station road before and after journalist Rajdev Ranjan was shot dead in its vicinity on May 13, they found as many as 36 calls made to and from one suspicious mobile number operating from the murder location.

The origin of the calls was traced to the Siwan Divisional Jail, where Shahabuddin was lodged along with 500 other inmates. Rajdev Ranjan's wife Asha too named the former MP as her husband's murderer.

The two SIM cards, used by the caller and the receiver, were found registered in the name of fake persons. But they only hinted at a deeper conspiracy that could be hatched by no ordinary criminal.

The Siwan cops, however, took six more days after the journalist's murder - a gap good enough for any criminal to destroy the material evidence - to raid the jail. But, it turned out to be an eye-opener. They found that Shahabuddin was holding a "durbar" and as many as 63 persons were in attendance. The majority of the visitors was unrecorded. The cops seized 43 cellphones from the visitors and several SIM cards, including one issued from an international location.

The one argument for keeping Shahabuddin in Siwan is that the trial against him is pending at the district court in at least 37 cases including murder, kidnapping and extortion.

But, Shahabuddin can easily make his appearance through a video link. His last court appearance was in December 10, 2015, when he was awarded life sentence for the 2004 Siwan double murder.

That was one conviction that proved Mohammad Shahabuddin had fled the Siwan divisional jail and murdered two men at his native Pratappur village in Siwan on August 16, 2004.

In fact, the Bihar home department also initiated a probe after a court ruled that the double murder took place in the presence of the former Siwan MP, who was then lodged in the divisional jail there. The conviction legally stated that Shahabuddin stepped out of prison to commit the crime and then returned to his barracks. The former MP was, at the time, lodged in the jail in connection with the kidnapping of CPI-ML worker Munna Choudhary.

Lalan Singh was the superintendent of the jail while RK Mahajan was the Siwan district magistrate when the double murder was committed. Mahajan is now principal secretary of health department headed by Lalu Prasad's elder son, Tej Pratap.

It was clear that the Siwan court was convinced with the prosecution argument that the SIM card, which was used to make calls to the murdered brothers' businessman father Chandrakeshwar Prasad, was issued in the name of Shahabuddin. The SIM card was later seized from Shahabuddin during a search of his ward and the details were presented in court. In fact, the SIM card was in use even after the double murder.

Rajeev Raushan, the only eyewitness in the double murder case and the brother of the two men killed, had deposed in court that Shahabuddin was present at the crime scene when his brothers Satish Raj (25) and Girish Raj (20) were drenched in acid before being killed at Pratappur. Rajeev too was later murdered in Siwan on June 16, 2014, ten years after his brothers were killed. Shahabuddin has been named as a conspirator in the murder.

Chandrakeshwar Prasad or Chanda Babu, as he is known in Siwan, is the victims' father and the man who lost his three sons - at the orders of Shahabuddin, the four-term MP turned murder convict.

So when the don walked out of Bhagalpur jail last month, Chanda Babu was quick to challenge Shahabuddin's bail order in the Supreme Court, a fearless stand that apparently also spurred the Nitish Kumar government into action.

The Supreme Court on September 30 allowed both the petitions, ensuring that the dreaded don will once again be packed off to jail.

When Shahabuddin was released in September and given a hero's welcome by his supporters, he took a swipe at those who were opposed to him. "There here are more than 22 lakh people in Siwan. What can I do if one or two people are unhappy."

Those who know him well claim that Shahabuddin had to tone down his response because TV cameras were recording his address. According to a senior IPS officer, when Shahabuddin actually meant "What could these couple of people do to him?"

The don got his answer when his bail was cancelled. But since then, his stay in Siwan Jail has raised a few questions.