New Delhi: With Bihar government and lawyer Prashant Bhushan separately knocking the Supreme Court’s door for cancellation of bail of controversial RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin, party chief Lalu Prasad first feigned ignorance but subsequently said he had nothing to comment on it.
“I do not know about it,” Prasad said, when asked about Prashant Bhushan and Bihar government moving Supreme Court with an appeal against Patna HC granting bail to Shahabuddin.
When pressed further for his comment, the RJD chief said “When the state government has taken a decision what can I say about it. The government would see what it has to do.”
Siwan strongman Shahabuddin is a close aide of Prasad and is a member of party’s central committee.
Shahabuddin, who is in the eye of storm ever since his release from Bhagalpur jail on Saturday after being granted bail from Patna High Court in a case of murder of a witness in the killing of two brothers by bathing them in acid, said he respected court and would abide by its order.
“I came out of jail on the order of the court and if another order comes I will go inside again,” Shahabuddin told mediapersons in Siwan.
“The entire country respects the court… Am I away from the country,” the RJD leader said.
The apex court has agreed to listen to the application by Prashant Bhushan seeking cancellation of bail to Shahabuddin on Monday.
Opposition BJP came down hard on the Nitish Kumar
government for the “delayed” appeal filed by it in the Supreme Court against Shahabuddin.
“Afraid of Lalu Prasad’s love for Shahabuddin, the Nitish Kumar government delayed going to the Supreme Court against the bail granted to the controversial RJD leader in the murder of a witness in a case relating to the killing of his two brothers by bathing them in acid 11 years ago,” senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said in a statement in Patna.
“The state government waited for Prashant Bhushan to file the petition… Nitish Kumar does not have the guts to go for legal attack on Shahabuddin. That is why the state government waited for Prashant Bhushan and CBI to tighten the legal noose around the controversial RJD former MP,” the former deputy chief minister of Bihar said.
Continuing his attack on Kumar, the BJP leader claimed when he was the chief minister of erstwhile NDA government in Bihar, he wanted to field Shahabuddin’s wife in the election on a JD(U) ticket. But Kumar could not due to strong objection from BJP.
“The CM does not have any problem with Shahabuddin and he is angry only because he did not recognise Kumar as leader.
“If Shahabuddin takes back his comment on Nitish Kumar and accepts his leadership, would the state government pardon him in all cases against him?” the BJP leader asked.