Sharpshooter, jailed RJD leader Shahabuddin aide arrested

An alleged sharpshooter and aide of jailed RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin has been arrested by Delhi Police which Sunday claimed that the gangster confessed to have killed over 11 people at the instance of the former MP from Bihar.

Aftab Alam was arrested from near the Old Delhi railway station last week when he had come there to meet a contact.

The 33-year-old gangster, who is wanted in more than 20 cases of murder, attempt to murder, robbery and kidnapping, has not been arrested since 1998.

Police said Alam told them that he entered into the world of crime in 1990 when he was 14. He became a close aide of Shahabuddin, ex-MP from Siwan.

"After coming under the patronage of Shahabuddin, he committed murders either at his instance or for taking revenge against his old rivals," DCP, Crime and Railways, Ashok Chand said.

After Shahabuddin was lodged in jail, Alam left Siwan in 2005 and settled in Chhattisgarh where he working as a security supervisor in a firm. He used to come to Delhi to his acquaintances in Zakir Nagar.

Chand said Alam confessed that he had shot 11 persons at the instance of Shahabuddin when they opposed his bid to take over large tracts of land owned by a 'math' in Bihar's Mujahida village.

"In the year 2002 at the instance of Shahabuddin, Alam and his associates abducted Ashok Kumar Sahu from Siwan. He was then taken to the house of the ex-MP at Pratap Pur where he was killed and his dead body buried in the field," Chand said.