By IANS
Patna : A Bihar court Thursday convicted Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammed Shahabuddin for a murderous attack on then Siwan superintendent of police (SP) in 1996.
This is the third time Shahabuddin has been convicted this year. He will be sentenced in the case Friday.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Gyaneshwar Prasad Srivastava of a special court inside Siwan jail, 150 km from here, found him guilty. Two of his bodyguards were also convicted.
The attack on then Siwan superintendent of police S.P. Singhal took place May 3, 1996 when Shahabuddin was the legislator from the Zeeradei assembly constituency in Siwan district.
Singhal, upon receiving information about tension in Darauli Mathiya village, went 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 police official.
Singhal identified three of his assailants as Shahabuddin and his two bodyguards, Jehangir and Khaliq, who were in uniforms. The men managed to escape while Singhal returned to Siwan.
The cop then lodged a written 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 the 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 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 over the seizure of arms from his ancestral house in the same district.
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.