Who was Shahabuddin: Former RJD MP and strongman, who died of COVID-19

Mohammad Shahabuddin, a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP and a strongman, died of COVID-19 on Saturday, PTI reported. He died at Delhi’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay, where he was lodged on April 20.

Although having served as an MLA and an MP, Shahabuddin was infamous for the slew of criminal cases against him. He was accused in over three dozen cases and was serving a life sentence in a 2004 double murder case.

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Shahabuddin first came into the political limelight in the 1990s after he joined the Janata Dal. He was elected as an MLA from Ziradei Assembly in 1990 and 1995. He was elected to the Parliament in 1996 as an MP from Siwan.

A close aide to Lalu Prasad Yadav, Shahabuddin joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) after it was formed in 1997.

Although accused in dozens of cases, he got bail in several of them and even successfully contested the 2004 Lok Sabha election from Siwan.

Shahabuddin was serving a life sentence for the murder of brothers Satish and Girish Roshan, who had refused to pay extortion money.

The third brother, Rajiv, who was an eyewitness to his brothers’ death was shot dead on June 6, 2014, when he was on his way to a trial court to depose against the strongman.

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The former legislator’s conviction in the case was upheld by the Patna High Court and the Supreme Court. In February 2018, the apex court ordered Shahabuddin to be shifted from Siwan jail to Tihar jail.