Shahabuddin case: victim's dad trusts court

Even as the Supreme Court on Monday deferred the hearing on Mohammad Shahabuddin’s bail cancellation petition to September 28, the man, whose sons were killed, said he has complete faith in god and the judiciary.

“Bhagwan ke ghar der hai par andher nahin (justice may be delayed, but not denied),” said Chandrakeshwar Prasad, whose three sons Satish, Girish and Rajiv Roshan were killed reportedly at the behest of Shahabuddin, a former MP from Siwan in Bihar. It was Prasad’s wife Kalawati Devi who had challenged in the Supreme Court the Patna High Court’s order granting bail to Shahabuddin.

In her petition, Kalawati said: “The high court had completely lost sight of the fact that Shahabuddin was a dreaded criminal who had absolutely no regard for the law.Granting him bail, even though he has been convicted for heinous offences like murder, abduction, among others, and is still facing trial in many cases lodged against him, would be a travesty of justice.”

She was referring to the incident at Siwan in 2004 when the then RJD MP’s henchmen reportedly abducted her sons and brought them to Pratappur to ‘amicably’ settle a land dispute.

Two of the brothers - Satish and Girish - were reportedly, in the presence of Shahabuddin, bathed in acid, which resulted in their death. According to the FIR, the henchmen cut up their bodies and packed it in a sack full of salt. The third son, Rajiv Roshan, managed to escape, but he was caught and killed by Shahabuddin’s men in 2014 in Siwan.