Apex court to hear two petitions against bail

The Supreme Court on Monday will take up the hearing of two petitions for cancellation of bail of former RJD MP Md Shahabuddin.

One of the petitions was filed by the Bihar government and the other by Chandrakeshwar Prasad, whose three sons were brutally murdered allegedly at the instance of Shahabuddin.

While Prasad’s two sons, Girish and Satish, died in 2004, after they were drenched in acid, the third son Rajiv, who was an eyewitness to the killings, managed to escape. He too was killed on June 16, 2014.

Life imprisonment

In 2015, Shahabuddin was sentenced to life imprisonment in connection with the 2004 case in which Girish and Satish were killed.

The case in which Rajiv was killed, just three days before he was to depose in the court against Shahabuddin, is awaiting trial.

The Bihar government, meanwhile, has pleaded before the apex court about three points on the basis of which Shahabuddin’s bail should be cancelled.

First, only seven months had passed after the Patna High Court set the nine-month deadline for conclusion of the trial. “What warranted the high court to grant bail to Shahabuddin two months in advance?”

Secondly, it said no mercy is shown to an accused who faces the charge of killing a witness. “But the high court has erred by showing mercy which Shahabuddin did not deserve.”

Thirdly, it is dangerous to enlarge such a dreaded accused, who is charged with murdering people even from behind bars, on bail.

While the Bihar government will be represented by its standing counsel Gopal Singh, the victims’ family will be represented by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan.

The petition filed by the aggrieved family has contended before the apex court that: “The high court, while granting bail to Shahabuddin, lost sight of the fact that he was a dreaded criminal who had absolutely no regard for law, and granting bail to him in the present case would let him come out of the jail as a free man even though he is still facing trial in many cases lodged against him.”

The petition further said: “As per the high court rules, it is mandatory for the accused while applying for bail to mention his criminal antecedents which were obviously not considered by the high court in the present case.”