SC questions Bihar govt over opposition to Shahabuddin's release

NEW DELHI: Faced with tough questioning by the Supreme Court over its failure to oppose the release of criminal-turned politician Mohammad Shahabuddin from jail, the Nitish Kumar government on Wednesday admitted a “shortfall” in dealing with the bail pleas of the RJD politician as well as that it was “hamstrung”.The Bihar government faced a hard time in Supreme Court for its alleged soft approach towards Shahabuddin. As it sought the cancellation of bail of Shahabuddin describing RJD member Lalu Prasad ’s close associate as a notorious criminal facing prosecution in around 45 criminal cases, a bench of Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy asked why the government did not challenge the bail given to him in those cases, leading to the former four-time MP coming out of jail.“This is a very peculiar case. Peculiarity has been done at whose instance. Who is behind making this case peculiar,” the bench said.Stung by adverse remarks of the bench, Dwivedi replied, “I accept the fact.” He then went on contending that the Patna HC erred in granting bail to Shahabuddin on the ground of delay in trial of a case and the court should have taken into account the history of the criminal and the fact that his bail plea was rejected thrice by the apex court. “We don’t want to make comments but it seems that the case was not taken seriously by you and and your lawyers and these facts were not pointed out in the HC by your lawyers,” the bench said.The state government then admitted that there was “shortfall” on the part of the state government. “I am not justifying what happened in past but only bringing all facts to court’s notice,” Dwivedi told the bench.Virtually admitting that the state authorities failed to follow rules to check Shahabuddin from indulging in criminal activities, Dwivedi said, “He (Shahabuddin) went to jail in 2005 but he kept on committing crimes while in jail but there was no evidence and people were not coming out against him out of fear.” The bench, however, shot back and asked Dwivedi why the state government did not bring these facts to the notice of the HC.