Former RJD MP and mafia don Mohammad Shahabuddin dies of COVID-19, had drenched two brothers in acid before killing them
Former RJD MP and mafia don, who used to once be a close aide of convicted criminal and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav was reported dead after being infected with COVID-19. Arrested and imprisoned for life, Shahabuddin was shifted to Tihar from Siwan only in 2018. He was facing trial in over 3 dozen criminal cases. His 2015 conviction and life sentence in the 2004 double murder case was upheld in 2019.
However, soon after the news surfaced, there were counter reports about the news of his death being unconfirmed. It was then reported that he was being treated for COVID-19 for the past week.
CORRECTION | Tweet deleted as awaiting official confirmation. Conflicting information was provided to us from family members and RJD spokesperson confirming his passing away. Error regretted. pic.twitter.com/WMcnUD2Oou
— ANI (@ANI) May 1, 2021
Now, however, Tejashwi Yadav has confirmed that the gangster is indeed dead. He added that the gangsters death was a loss to the party.
पूर्व सांसद मोहम्मद शहाबुद्दीन का कोरोना संक्रमण के कारण असमय निधन की दुःखद ख़बर पीड़ादायक है। ईश्वर उनको जन्नत में जगह दें, परिवार और शुभचिंतकों को संबल प्रदान करें। उनका निधन पार्टी के लिए अपूरणीय क्षति है। दुख की इस घड़ी में राजद परिवार शोक संतप्त परिजनों के साथ है।
— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) May 1, 2021
Siwan district was the fiefdom of four-time Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Shahabuddin aka Saheb (as Shahabuddin is referred to in Siwan), who had ruled Siwan with fear, especially during the days of Lalu Yadav’s Jungle Raj. Shahabuddin has an ancestral bungalow located in Pratappur’s Terdighat. It is said that there can be no count of how many people have been killed and buried in the backyard of the Siwan’s strongman’s ancestral house.
Shahabuddin, known as “Sultan of Siwan”, was serving life imprisonment in the Tihar jail in connection with several cases including the kidnapping and murder of CPI (ML) leader Chandrashekhar Prasad aka Chhote Lal Gupta in 1999 and a double-murder case. Chanda Babu’s three out of four sons were the victims of Shahabuddin’s atrocities. His two sons – Girish Raj (20) and Satish Raj (25) – were drenched in acid before being killed at Pratappur by henchmen of the mafia don, while his third son Rajeev Raushan, who was the only eyewitness in the double-murder case, was later murdered in Siwan on June 16, 2014.
In 1997, Shahabuddin had also murdered Chandu, a JNU student, an AISA leader who had established the CPI (ML) students wing in JNU. After pursuing his higher studies from JNU, Chandu had gone back to Siwan to become a full-time party worker. It was there that Chandu was gunned down by the goons of Shahabuddin in broad daylight while addressing a public meeting. While Shahabuddin has killed many from the Left, interestingly, the Left had allied with RJD in 2020 for political gains.
Hid reign of terror, however, is also marked by the dreaded Pratappur encounter in Siwan. In 2001, one day, Shahabuddin’s men attacked Siwan DSP Ashwini Kumar. In a few days, Siwan Sadar’s DSP Sanjeev Kumar was at one of the matriculation exam centres. Sanjiv Kumar had come with a force to comply with a warrant against local RJD chief and a wanted criminal Manoj Kumar Pappu. Shahabuddin and his supporters were also present. Shahabuddin had come to provide “assistance” to one of his ‘boys’ taking the exam. When DSP Sanjeev Kumar tried to nab Manoj Kumar Pappu, in the presence of ‘MP Saheb’, the infuriated Shahabddinu slapped DSP Sanjeev Kumar in front of the public. This news was not covered in the media because of the terror of the mafia don.
That time Bacchu Singh Meena was the SP of Siwan, under whom the police showed unbelievable courage and decided to raid Shahbuddin’s house in Pratappur.
The MP’s supporters were already sitting prepared. The police didn’t even imagine that so many people would start firing with AK-47 and assault rifles at them simultaneously from inside the MP’s house. It is known that Shahabuddin was also leading the attack and firing at the police.
Besides the Bihar Police, teams of Uttar Pradesh police from Deoria were also deployed on SP Meena’s request. After a 10-hour long gun battle and more than 4000 rounds of bullets fired, 3 policemen and 8 of Shahabuddin’s accomplices were shot dead while several police vehicles were burnt down. When police eventually entered the gangster’s home, to their shock, they found a considerable amount of weapons, including Pakistan-made assault rifles, AK-47s, grenades, several 9 mm pistols, and ammunition in Shahabuddin’s home.
The immediate fallout of this episode was the transfer of SP Bacchu Singh Meena, and the DM the very next day. The matriculation exams were postponed for three days. Siwan came to a standstill.
The RJD MP managed to escape and reappeared from nowhere a few hours later and declared: “अगर बच्चू सिंह मीना को राजस्थान तक भी दौड़ा कर मारना होगा तो मारेंगे, लेकिन मारेंगे ज़रूर” (I’ll kill Bacchu Singh Meena even if I’ve to chase him to Rajasthan. No one can save him now.)
Police claimed to have recovered an AK-47 rifle, a 9mm pistol and some hand-grenades from the MP’s house. The then Director-General of Police RR Prasad and other top police and administrative officials had then camped in the village. Chief Secretary Mukund Prasad had then confirmed that two columns of the army from Ranchi and one column from Danapur (Patna) had been deployed in Siwan. Besides, three companies of central paramilitary forces had also been rushed there. According to official sources, the state government had also deputed four additional district magistrates and four executive magistrates in Siwan.
