Judge hearing cases against Shahabuddin transferred

The judge of the special court inside Bihar's Siwan jail, hearing the cases against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammed Shahabuddin - involved in 40 criminal cases including murder, abduction and possession of illegal arms - was transferred by the Patna High Court, an official source said on Thursday.

Judge V.V. Gupta was transferred from the special trial court inside the Siwan jail, about 150 km from here, to Chhapra, the district headquarters of Saran.

Last year, the Patna High Court directed that a special court should be set up inside Siwan jail so that all cases pending against Shahabuddin could be tried quickly, and appointed Gupta to hear the cases.

Gupta's transfer is likely to slow down the hearing of the cases pending against Shahabuddin.

"A new judge will be appointed after the high court order. It will take some time", an official source said.

Shahabuddin is currently lodged in Siwan jail. He was arrested in 2005 in New Delhi.

The RJD leader was convicted for the first time in March 2007, for his role in an attack on the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) office in Siwan in 1998.

In May 2007, the special court sentenced him to life imprisonment for the kidnapping and murder of Chhote Lal Gupta, a CPI-ML worker, in 1999. In August 2007, he was sentenced to 10 years in jail for attacking then Siwan superintendent of police S.K. Singhal in 1996.

Shahabuddin is a Lok Sabha MP from Siwan since 1996.