Supreme Court seeks Mohammad Shahabuddin’s reply on plea challenging his bail

Former deputy chief minister and BJP leader Sushil Modi has alleged the Bihar government has again fielded a weak lawyer like Gopal Singh to argue the dreaded don-turned politician Shahabuddin’s bail cancellation petition filed by the state government in Supreme Court.

Shahabuddin walked out free on September 7 when the Patna High Court granted him bail in a case of murder of a witness in the 2004 killing of two brothers in Siwan.

Bihar government also supported the submission of Bhushan and rather went a step ahead while seeking issuance of non-bailable warrant against Shahabuddin.

Even though Shahabuddin was already in jail in the twin murder case, but in Rajiv Roshan case, the Siwan strongman was shown as arrested on November 27, 2014.

Notwithstanding these facts, the High Court had gone ahead and granted bail to Shahabuddin.

A bench of Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy, which heard advocate Prashant Bhushan and Bihar government’s plea for almost an hour, however said “we intend to give him a hearing also”.

The Bench of Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy made a decision to issue notice on the two appeals but refused to grant any stay till it had heard Shahabuddin on the issue of cancellation of bail.

Telling the court that Shahabuddin should have been lodged in a jail outside Bihar, Bhushan said that the high court should have, instead of granting bail, said that his trial would take place through video conferencing from Bhagalpur jail. He demanded that Shahbuddin be shifted to a jail outside Bihar.

The court said that it will hear Shahabuddin before granting any stay.

A district administration official said the high alert was declared and heavy deployment of security forces was made following an intelligence report that warned of possible law and order situation if Shahabuddin’s bail was cancelled.

Bihar government had earlier said the High Court had failed to follow its own order of February asking the trial court to complete the trial in the Roshan murder case within nine months. However, a failure on part of the government led to bail being granted on a technicality.