Shahabuddin will not resign, says a close aide of RJD leader

A close aide of Mohammed Shahabuddin on Tuesday said the controversial RJD MP will not resign from Lok Sabha in the wake of a court sentencing him to life imprisonment in a kidnapping case.

A close aide of Mohammed Shahabuddin on Tuesday said the controversial RJD MP will not resign from Lok Sabha in the wake of a court sentencing him to life imprisonment in a kidnapping case and will file an appeal in the Patna High Court soon against the verdict.

HT Image

"Shahabuddin will not resign. He will be appealing in the Patna High Court soon. He has sent a message to us in this regard," Ajay Kumar, a close aide of the RJD leader, told reporters in Siwan.

"What is the moral ground?" Kumar quipped when his attention was drawn to the demand by ruling JD(U)-BJP combine for Shahabuddin's resignation.

Launching a broadside against Nitish Kumar, he accused the chief minister of "stage-managing" the trial in the cases against Shahabuddin.

"Because Shahabuddin is a Muslim, he is facing the brunt of the police and the government," he said and alleged that several ruling party MLAs involved in serious criminal offence had been allowed "to move freely" and special courts have been set up for trying the cases against them.

He alleged that even a 'fake' witness was allowed to depose in course of the trial of the case which related to kidnapping of a CPI-ML worker Chhotelal Gupta from near a railway crossing in Siwan on February 7, 1999.