The Don’s New Digs
Will the shift from Bihar to Tihar slow down Shahabuddin?
So is it finally over for Mohammad Shahabuddin? The criminal-turned-Rashtriya Janata Dal politician, whose name spelt terror in Bihar’s Siwan district even after he was jailed in 2005, has been moved from the comfort of his evidently lax hometown penitentiary on the orders of the Supreme Court. Consider this: not only will the convict be under constant CCTV surveillance inside Delhi’s high-security Tihar Jail, he will be guarded by Tamil Nadu Special Police personnel who will not speak his language and, presumably, will be unimpressed with Shahabuddin’s notoriety. Surely a major climbdown from the state jail in Siwan where he held durbars attended by MLAs and ministers and everyone, including senior prison officers, deferentially addressed him as “Sahib (master).” Named in 75 FIRs, facing 45 criminal trials, and already convicted in 10 cases, Shahabuddin’s transfer to Tihar followed two Supreme Court petitions, by Asha Ranjan (widow of slain Siwan-based journalist Rajdeo Ranjan) and Chandrakeshwar Prasad, three of whose sons were killed. Both petitioners accused Shahabuddin of masterminding the murders from jail. Notably, he’s been declared a beyond-reform ‘Type A history-sheeter’. Transported from Siwan by train in a second class coach in view of the SC’s instructions on not extending him any special privileges, the fourtime MP had lost much of his swagger by the time the accompanying posse escorted him into Tihar on February 19.