SC issues notice seeking their reply to shift Shahabuddin to Tihar jail

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, the Bihar Government and the Centre seeking their reply to shift the former from Siwan district jail in Bihar to Tihar jail in Delhi .

The next hearing of the case is scheduled for November 28.

Slain journalist Rajdeo Ranjan's widow Asha Ranjan had filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking to shift Shahabuddin from the Siwan to the Tihar jail so that witnesses in her husband's murder case are not influenced.

Hearing Asha Ranjan's plea on October 17, an apex court bench headed by Justice Dipak Mishra had directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to complete the murder probe within three months.

The apex court also issued notices and sought responses from Shahabuddin and Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav.

During the last hearing, Tej Pratap had admitted that he had accepted a bouquet from one of the murder accused, but denied his involvement in the murder.

Ranjan (42), the bureau chief of The Hindustan, was shot dead in July this year at Phal Mandi near the Siwan railway station, barely half-a-kilometer from the police station.

The Bihar government has recommended the CBI probe into the case.

The case came into limelight again after a photograph appeared in the media showing murder suspects Mohammad Kaif and Mohammad Javed with gangster-politician Mohammed Shahabuddin after his release from jail.

Kaif, however, later rubbished all accusations against him and said he has no involvement in Rajdeo's murder case.

Meanwhile, a separate petition filed by Chandrakeshwar Prasad, whose three sons had been murdered at the behest of the RJP leade.

Shahabuddin, who had been in jail for more than 10 years in connection with multiple cases, was granted bail by the Patna High Court on September 7 in connection with the murder of a man who witnessed the killing of two brothers in Siwan.