Freed After 11 Years, Shahabuddin Of Lalu's Party Jabs At Nitish Kumar

Bhagalpur: Mohammad Shahabuddin, a former lawmaker from Lalu Yadav's RJD, walked out today after 11 years in jail. He was granted bail earlier this week in a murder case.

Thousands of Mr Shahabuddin's supporters had gathered outside the Bhagalpur jail in Bihar and a long entourage of SUVs reportedly escorted him back to his village Pratapur in Siwan.

As he left prison, the four-term former MP from Siwan who has over 40 criminal cases against him and is serving a life sentence for murder, pledged allegiance to Lalu Yadav and took a swipe at Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

"Nitish Kumar is a leader of circumstances, my leader is Lalu Yadav," said Mr Shahabuddin in an assessment of their partnership. He is a member of the RJD's national executive.

Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar came together for the Bihar assembly elections last year in a common need to defeat the BJP and posted a handsome win. Though Lalu Yadav's party won more seats, Nitish Kumar became chief minister in keeping with a pre-election agreement.

But when Mr Shahabuddin, 49 had gone to jail in 2005 Lalu and Nitish were bitter political rivals; the Chief Minister, then an ally of the BJP, was credited with ending Mr Shahabuddin's reign of terror in Siwan.

The changed equations reflected in the reaction of Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United to Mr Shahabuddin's dig at the chief minister. "Shahabuddin is the leader of RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) - our alliance partner. I wouldn't want to comment on it," said the party's KC Tyagi.

"Shahabuddin has been released on bail and we mustn't question the judgement of the courts and judiciary," Mr Tyagi said about his release.

The BJP's Sushil Modi has said in a tweet, "Now Lalu symbol of corruption will be on one side of Nitish & Shahabuddin symbol of terror on the other side..."

Rejecting the BJP's allegations, Lalu Yadav's son Tejaswi Yadav said, "When BJP leaders are given bail do people question them? When Amit Shah was given acquittal were BJP leaders questioned?"

Declining to comment on Shahabuddin's remarks on Nitish Kumar, Mr Yadav said "It is his individual opinion."

"Does anyone look scared here," asked Mr Shahabuddin outside the jail today as his supporters shouted slogans praising him.

He was granted bail by the Patna High Court on Wednesday in the Rajiv Roshan murder case. In 2004, two brothers, sons of a local businessman, were killed in Siwan by a group of men who bathed them in acid. Their older brother Rajiv Roshan, who was an eyewitness in the case, was shot dead in 2015. Mohd Shahabuddin, who was in jail then, was accused of criminal conspiracy.

The many cases against Mr Shahabuddin include those of murder, extortion, kidnapping and intimidation. A dozen of these cases are in the trial stage, while in the rest, he has challenged lower court convictions and has bail.