From jail, Siwan’s MP says he will teach DGP a lesson

In an orange check shirt and white lungi, with sunglasses perched on his head, Shahabuddin sat with his legs crossed on a plastic chair, next to a window outside the jail superintendent’s office. He held on to the window grill, nervous and pensive.

A fresh red thread on his right wrist was presumably tied in recent days to protect him from the gaze of law after DGP Ojha ordered his arrest two weeks ago in the Munna case and followed it with three more. Ojha promised at least six more arrest orders.

It’s not the first time he has been to jail: he won two elections, one to the state Assembly and another to Lok Sabha from inside jail. This afternoon, what weighed heavily on his mind was the supremacy of law and his responsibilities, being a Parliament member.

‘‘I will be the last one to run away from law. I make laws, you know,’’ he said, his supporters nodding in absolute agreement. His behaviour and face betrayed the disappointment, but he refused to accept defeat. ‘‘Can’t you see that I am pleasant and cool?’’ None answered. Shahabuddin is not known for taking no for an answer.

‘‘It is on the advice on my supporters that I decided to surrender.’’ A huge mob of supporters accompanied him to the court from his house in Pratappur village. ‘‘I will now try for regular bail,’’ the MP said. The bail petition will be heard on August 25.

Shahabuddin maintained all cases against him were ‘‘fabricated and false.’’ ‘‘I will come out and expose the conspiracy behind all this,’’ Did he consider DGP Ojha part of ‘‘the conspiracy’’? Pat came the reply: ‘‘Part? He is the hero of this conspiracy.’’ Eariler, his supporters raised slogans against the DGP.

Who was Munna Chaudhary? ‘‘He was a criminal, proceeded against by the police even in 2003. If he was murdered, why the proceedings against him?’’ Shahabuddin countered. Then why did the SP name him in a bank dacoity case in Gopalganj? ‘‘The SP says I was 500 meteres away from the site. But the SP himself was just 50 metres away from the site of dacoity,’’ he shot back.

Supporters of Shahabuddin milled around the jail. One of them, Satyendra Tiwari who has been inside for three months in an Arms Act case, received the MP. Rajendra Pratap Singh, a mukhiya from Raghunath Prakhand, warned that Laloo Prasad and the RJD would go the Congress way in Bihar. ‘‘Laloo is behind all this,’’ Shahabuddin’s supporters alleged.

Would the jail make a difference? Would he still stand by his statement that he would teach the DGP a lesson after the latter’s retirement? ‘‘No difference at all. I stand by my statement on the DGP. I will teach him a lesson,’’ he said without batting an eyelid. ‘‘In democratic ways, of course,’’ he added.