Jailed ex-MP dies of Covid at hospital

NEW DELHI: Gangster-politician Mohammad Shahabuddin who tested positive for Covid-19 nearly 10 days ago died in a Delhi hospital on Saturday morning, according to officials at Tihar prison where the former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) lawmaker had spent the last four years on orders of the Supreme Court.

Tihar prison officials had shifted 53-year-old Shahabuddin to Deen Dayal Upadhyay hospital on April 21 after his condition deteriorated.

The four-time parliamentarian from Bihar’s Siwan tested positive for the disease on April 20, according to director general(prisons) Sandeep Goel.

This is the fifth death in five days of a Tihar prisoner due to the disease that has overwhelmed the health care system in many parts of the country, including national capital Delhi. Last year, during the first three waves of the infection in Delhi, two prisoners had died of the disease.

Shahabuddin was brought to Tihar prison in February 2017 on the Supreme Court’s order on petitions by Siwan-based businessman Chandrakeshwar Prasad, whose three sons were killed in two incidents. Asha Ranjan, the wife of journalist Rajdeo Ranjan who was murdered in Siwan, also pleaded that they would never get a fair trial as long as Shahabuddin was in a Bihar jail.

In 2017 when the Supreme Court heard the case, he had 45 criminal cases against him.

Prison officers suspect Shahabuddin may have been infected with the virus through an asymptomatic jail officer.

The death of four prisoners prompted Tihar Jail authorities on Thursday to ask the Delhi government to release prisoners under “emergency parole” help decongest the overcrowded prison. The government is yet to issue an order and are looking into the proposal.

Tihar, the country’s largest prison complex with over 20,000 prisoners, has over 260 prisoners and 115 jail officers who have tested positive --- up from just 19 infected prisoners and not a single infected jail officer on April 6.