By IANS
Patna : Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Shahabuddin was Saturday convicted by a special court in Bihar for the 1999 abduction of Chote Lal, a trader in Siwan district.
Justice Gyaneshwar Srivastava of the special court in Siwan jail, about 150 km from here, convicted Shahabuddin on the basis of circumstantial evidence against him, the public prosecutor told reporters.
Chote Lal was abducted in 1999 and since then his whereabouts are not known. The court will pronounce the quantum of sentence against Shahabuddin Tuesday.
This is the second time Shahabuddin has been convicted in a criminal case by the special court. In March, he was convicted of attacking the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) office in Siwan town Sep 19, 1998.
Shahabuddin and his armed supporters were said to have bombed the premises, damaged furniture and assaulted office secretary Keshav Baitha.
The special court, meanwhile, acquitted him of two other criminal charges – one related to assaulting a man in 1997 and the other over his role in a bomb blast in DAV College in Siwan 1991.
A Lok Sabha member from Siwan since 1996, Shahabuddin is involved in nearly 40 criminal cases including those of murder, abduction and possession of illegal arms.
Currently lodged in Siwan jail, Shahabuddin was arrested in New Delhi more than a year ago over the seizure of arms from his ancestral house in Siwan.
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.