By IANS
Patna : Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammed Shahabuddin was Friday sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment after being found guilty of a murderous attack on a top Siwan police official 11 years ago.
This is the third conviction for Shahabuddin this year.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Gyaneshwar Prasad Srivastava pronounced the sentence at a special court inside Siwan jail, 150 km from here. Two of his bodyguards, Jehangir Khan and Mohd Khaliq, were also sentenced to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for the attack on then Siwan superintendent of police (SP) S.P. Singhal on May 3, 1996.
On Thursday, the court had found Shahabuddin and his two bodyguards guilty.
The police official had, upon receiving information about some tension in Darauli Mathiya village, gone there for investigation. He saw four people carrying arms at Done Bazaar and sent his bodyguards to inquire. But the men sped away in a vehicle. As Singhal gave chase, he was followed by a car. The occupants of both the vehicles then fired upon the official.
Singhal identified three of his assailants as Shahabuddin and his two bodyguards, Jehangir and Khaliq, who were in uniform. Shahabuddin was then legislator from the Zeeradei assembly constituency in Siwan district.
The official had filed a complaint with the Darauli police station.
In May, a court had sentenced Shahabuddin to life imprisonment for murdering a political activist in 1999. In March, he was convicted of attacking a Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist office in Siwan town Sep 19, 1998.
A Lok Sabha member from Siwan since 1996, Shahabuddin is involved in over 40 criminal cases, including murder, abduction and possession of illegal arms. Currently lodged in Siwan jail, he was arrested in Delhi more than a year ago after arms were seized from his ancestral house in the district.
Earlier this year, the Patna High Court had directed that all pending cases against him be tried by a special court set up by the state government in Siwan jail.