RJD MP Mohammed Shahabuddin was sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court in a case of kidnapping a CPI-ML worker eight years ago.
SIWAN: Controversial RJD MP from Siwan Mohammed Shahabuddin was on Tuesday sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court here in a case of kidnapping a CPI-ML worker eight years ago.
Additional district and sessions judge Gyaneshwar Prasad Srivastava also imposed a fine of Rs10,000 on Shahabuddin and gave him a month's time to go in appeal against the sentence.
The judge had on May 5 pronounced Shahabuddin guilty under section 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) in the case relating to kidnapping of CPI-ML worker Chhote Lal Gupta on February 7, 1999.
Shahabuddin was the only one named in the FIR as others involved in the kidnapping were unidentified.
The prosecution could not establish that the victim was murdered as his body was never found.
Shahabuddin's counsel Zulfikar Ali told reporters his client will move a superior court against the verdict "as early as possible" after going through the order.
The trial of the case was held inside Siwan jail for security reasons.
Earlier on March two, the RJD strongman was sentenced to two years' imprisonment in a case of attack on CPI-ML office at Kurmabad in Siwan town on September 19, 1998 in which the party's office secretary Keshav Baitha was kidnapped and
assaulted.
Shahabuddin has over 30 cases, including those of murder, attempt to murder, possession of illegal arms of foreign make, unaccounted foreign currency and violation of wildlife act pending against him.
Among the more publicised cases pending against Shahabuddin is that of murder of former Jawaharlal Nehru University students union president Chandrashekhar on March 31, 2007.
He is also accused in a case of encounter with police for several hours at his native Pratappur village on March 16, 2001 in which a policeman was killed after which a cache of firearms, including AK 47 assault rifles and explosives were seized from his house though Shahabuddin himself managed to escape.
In a damage control act in view of Shahabuddin's popularity among the minority voters, RJD president Lalu Prasad had despatched a ministerial team to Pratappur that included Shivanand Tiwari and Abdul Bari Siddiqui to hold an inquiry in to the encounter.
In a surprise statement, Tiwari had accused the Bihar police of trying to plot the murder of Shahabuddin even though RJD was in power in the state at that time.
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