In the next 24 hours, it will be known whether RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin, charged in over 45 heinous cases, will be sent back to jail as the Supreme Court is expected to deliver its verdict on a set of appeals challenging the bail granted to him by the Patna High Court.
The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved orders on two appeals challenging the September 7 order of the Patna High Court after hearing arguments on both sides for the past three days. One appeal was filed by the Bihar Government and another by Siwan resident Chandrakeshwar Prasad, who lost his three sons in two separate incidents of murder committed allegedly by Shahabuddin.
The Bench of Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy, while reserving its orders, remained critical of the State’s role in failing to oppose the bail order before the High Court and delaying the trial, which gave an unfair advantage to the accused.
For Shahabuddin, senior advocate Shekhar Naphade argued that the State failed to supply a copy of chargesheet and case records pertaining to the case involving death of Prasad’s son Rajiv Roshan for the past 17 months. The Court took note of this fact but Prasad’s counsel Prashant Bhushan found no merit in this allegation as he showed how the records submitted by Shahabuddin contained excerpts from the chargesheet.
