Why His Bail Raises Eyebrows

looked as if he had stepped out of a barber shop rather than a prison. BJP senior leader Sushil Kumar Modi has accused the LaluNitish duo of enabling Shahabuddin’s bail. The Patna HC’s bail order reads: “Finding no progress in the trial and further considering the period of detention, the petitioner is directed to be released on bail.” For over two years, the government failed to take the Rajiv Roshan murder case to trial. It even failed to honour the HC’s directions of February 3 to conclude the trial within nine months. Bail was also made possible as the police chose not to invoke the Crime Control Act (CCA), as it had done once to keep Shahabuddin in jail on the grounds that he could influence the trial.

Modi said had the government wanted, it could have begun Shahabuddin’s trial through videoconferencing from Bhagalpur, where the Siwan strongman was shifted after the murder of Siwanbased journalist Rajdeo Ranjan in May. The journalist’s family has accused Shahabuddin of masterminding the killing. “Why wasn’t he booked under the CCA,” asks Modi, “when he is involved in so many cases? Instead, the CCA was imposed on Mokama MLA Anant Singh (another dreaded don) to prevent him from coming out of jail even though he hasn’t been convicted. The state has conspired to weaken the case.” He also questioned why the state had not engaged top lawyers to oppose Shahabuddin’s bail, having spared no expense to hire a crack legal team to represent the state when the prohibition decree was challenged in court.