Newsmaker: Mohammad Shahabuddin

Politics ensures the convicted don is back

Ever since the release on bail of former Rashtriya Janata Dal strongman Mohammad Shahabuddin, ex-Member of Parliament, bickering and blame games within the Janata Dal (U)-RJD alliance show no sign of abating. Right after the four-term MP from Siwan walked out of jail on September 10 to a hero's welcome, he described Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as being a "CM due to circumstances". The next morning he again questioned Kumar's credentials for the job and said the CM could not have got more than 20 seats for the party on his own.

The JD (U) responded in kind. "No one should take our humility as weakness," said water minister Rajiv Ranjan. "We know how to deal with people like Shahabuddin." The Congress quickly sided with the JD (U), leaving RJD chief Lalu Prasad alone to defend one of his strongest generals. Many consider this the first sign of stress in the alliance, stitched together by Prasad and Kumar for their political survival.

Shahabuddin is ensconced at his palatial home in Siwan. With the crowd to meet him swelling by the day, the don-turned-politician says he is happy to be with his people. "I am not all perturbed by what people in Patna or Delhi think or say about me. I only care about my people. This is my home and I only care about Siwan," he told Business Standard.

Born in Pratappur village of Siwan on May 27, 1967, Shahabuddin had his first encounter with the law at the age of 19. A history-sheet was opened in his name at Hussainganj police station and he was declared a 'Grade A' criminal. Thereafter, he left for Jamshedpur but didn't change his ways. By the time he returned Siwan to contest the legislative Assembly election in 1990, he had become known as a criminal figure in then south Bihar (now Jharkhand).

He contested and won in 1990 as an independent candidate, with a Robin Hood image. This image kept getting cemented. He won in 1995, this time as a Janata Dal candidate. His stature grew when he won the 1996 Lok Sabha poll. He acquired more power with the RJD breaking away from the JD in 1997; Siwan turned into his personal fiefdom and he became its uncrowned king. Nobody, not even police or administrative officials, dared to challenge him.

Bad days fell upon him soon after the 2004 election. A police team raided his house in 2005 and recovered several illegal weapons, army night-vision goggles and Pakistan-made arms and ammunition. He was arrested from Delhi, where he had come to attend the Parliament session. The speedy trial mechanism, established by Nitish Kumar in 2006, ensured his conviction in more than a dozen crimes. He was nearly forgotten after 10 years of imprisonment but things took a turn in 2014, when Lalu and Nitish joined hands to stop the Bharatiya Janata Party after the latest Lok Sabha election. Candidates of both JD-U and RJD started attending his durbars inside the Siwan jail. He issued diktats from inside the jail on whom to vote for in last year's Assembly election. Allegedly, issued orders to "take care" of witnesses in several of the cases against him. He was transferred to Bhagalpur jail in May after his name came up in the murder investigation of local journalist Rajdeo Ranjan.

His writ still runs large in Siwan. Nobody dares to say his name, referring to him as Saheb. The administration seems uncertain on how to deal with Shahabuddin. This is why it had ordered the company responsible for manning the toll-booth plaza at the East-West Corridor in Muzaffarpur to open all the gates and let the RJD leader and supporters pass without paying the toll. "For you it might be a crime that more than 200 cars crossed a toll booth in Muzaffarpur without paying the toll. But, do you honestly think that the convoy would have paid the toll if they had been stopped? What would have been the situation then?" asked a senior police official.