Mohammad Shahabuddin

double murder case

Siwan

Shahabuddin’s release

SIWAN/PATNA: The judge who sentenced RJD memberto life imprisonment in awas transferred fromjust 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. The Nitish government in Bihar has provided security to him. Shahabuddin got bail on September 7 and walked out of jail on September 10.Taking cognizance 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 Siwan jail, where Shahabuddin was lodged since 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 Shahabuddin’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 security 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. Shahabuddin was shifted from Siwan jail to Bhagalpur central jail in May, just days after Ranjan was murdered.