By IANS
Patna : A special Bihar court Friday framed charges against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammed Shahabuddin and nine others in a case relating to a March 2001 shootout when police tried to arrest Shahabuddin from his ancestral house in Pratappur in Siwan district.
Nine people were killed in the incident.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Gyaneshwar Prasad Srivastava of the special court inside the Siwan jail framed charges after hearing the case. A charge sheet had been filed earlier by Siwan police against the RJD leader.
Police had found sophisticated firearms, including hand grenades and AK-46 rifles from Shahabuddin’s house. A case was filed under the Arms Act at the Hussainganj police station.
Shahabuddin was sentenced to life imprisonment in May for the murder of a Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) worker Chhote Lal Gupta in 1999. This could disqualify him from contesting parliamentary elections again.
This was the second time Shahabuddin has been sentenced in a criminal case by the special court. In March, he was convicted of attacking the CPI-ML office in Siwan town Sep 19, 1998.
A Lok Sabha member from Siwan since 1996, Shahabuddin is involved in 40 criminal cases, including those of murder, abduction and possession of illegal arms.
Currently lodged in Siwan jail, he was arrested in Delhi more than a year ago following seizure of arms from his ancestral house.
Earlier this year, the Patna High Court directed that all pending cases against him be tried by a special court set up by the state government in Siwan jail.