Hit and run

UNTIL recently Mohammed Shahabuddin8212;MP from north Bihar8217;s Siwan8212;lived in the happy knowledge that being accused in three doze...

UNTIL recently Mohammed Shahabuddin8212;MP from north Bihar8217;s Siwan8212;lived in the happy knowledge that being accused in three dozens cases would never come between him and freedom. All that changed rather suddenly when D P Ojha, director-general of the state police, ordered his arrest last week on charges of kidnapping and murder of Munna Chaudhary, a CPIML activist in 2001.

Shahabuddin went underground. He may be eluding the police but he8217;s accessible to journalists and takes out his anger on the DGP: 8216;8216;Use mein dhool chata doonga. After his retirement he will be on the street. I will also be on the street and will see him there,8217;8217; are some of his recent threats.

References to the street are perhaps appropriate for it was here that Shahabuddin started his politics more than a decade ago. He survived the state police for this long so what provoked it to pursue this flamboyant dresser and fan of Jeffrey Archer and Sidney Sheldon?

The Shahabuddin case file

8226; Age: 36
8226; His father was a stamp vendor in Siwan.
8226; There are 36 cases against him for kidnapping, murder, looting.
8226; He became involved in shady deals in about 1985 in Jamshedpur.
8226; Won from the Ziradei constituency in 1990 as independent candidate from jail. Then joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal, won the same seat with an increased margin in 1995.
8226; Has held on to the Lok Sabha seat from Siwan since 1996.
8226; Is married and has a child.
8226; Other weakness besides dodging the law8212;branded t-shirts and jeans.

The answer lies in the complicated relationship between Ojha, Shahabuddin and Laloo Prasad Yadav. Laloo had once found this cold but aggressive Muslim useful for the Yadav-Muslim electoral combination he was nurturing in the early 90s. Shahabuddin was then an independent MLA from Siwan with a Robin Hood image. It was he who fixed the fees of doctors in Siwan, a step that won him instant popularity with the poor.

But Shahabuddin accepts popularity with as much pleasure as he resents dissent. In the last ten years he8217;s moved on from street politics to the Lok Sabha and the move has hardened his arrogance. All political opposition is now silenced in cold blood. The most notorious instance being the shooting of Chandrashekhar Prasad, then president of JNUSU, Shahabuddin8217;s childhood acquaintance and a credible challenger to his hold in 1996. 8216;8216;For both Laloo and Shahabuddin it was a win-win situation: for the latter, law of the land did not apply and in return Laloo got the support of Shahabuddin8217;s muscle power and organisational capabilities,8217;8217; says a Shahabuddin supporter in the Rabri government.

In 2000, when Laloo was trying to form a government under his wife Rabri Devi with a wafer-thin majority, Shahabuddin held captive a few dozen fence-sitting MLAs, in a Patna hotel. And he organised the Muslims communally when the occasion demanded. Nothing could have suited Laloo more.

But Shahabuddin always thought he was not being compensated adequately and remained suspicious of Laloo.

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Within months of the RJD forming the government, a police party had surrounded the MP at his house in Pratap Pur village, a shootout followed and he had to flee, dressed in a burqua. Laloo was silent for a while before removing the police officials concerned.

In 2003, Shahabuddin pressed for W H Khan for the post of DGP. Laloo picked Ojha, his friend for the last two decades including in the fodder scam crisis. Shahbuddin made an enemy in Ojha who was a friend of Laloo8217;s.

Meanwhile, Laloo too was getting suspicious about Shahabuddin. Laloo noticed that in Siwan there was not a single poster of him. In the photo gallery at Shahabuddin8217;s house, only Saddam Hussein got a respectable niche. And then the bigger sin of being in touch with the BJP which was scourging for allies to dislodge Laloo. 8216;8216;Laloo gave Ojha the tacit nod to show Shahabuddin his place,8217;8217; says a senior officer of the state police. 8216;8216;But Laloo did not want Ojha to precipitate the matter this way,8217;8217; he adds.

After a raid on the MP8217;s farmhouse this April, Sultan Mian, who according to the police is 8216;8216;Bihar8217;s most wanted contract killer8217;8217;, was arrested. He is said to be close to Shahabuddin, but the MP says he knew him only as he 8216;8216;knew thousand others by virtue of being an MP.8217;8217; Then the DGP increased pressure on Shahabuddin by keeping a Special Task Force team in Siwan.

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Ojha is no pusharound and knew that Laloo would dump him if political compulsions demanded. Highly image conscious, Ojha is said to be nurturing political ambitions. He calculated that an open war suited him best, forcing Laloo into a corner. Ojha is now a hero among his men and the public. After the arrest order, he recommended a CBI inquiry into Shahabuddin8217;s alleged role in a bank robbery case and into his sources of income. Then he gave an alert to airports that he might try fleeing the country8212;all this ensuring that the MP feels the heat and the media keeps the focus on the issue.

After the DGP8217;s arrest order, Laloo was in a fix; he remained silent for almost a week to finally declare that Shahabuddin was like his brother. Shahabuddin returned the compliment and the two are said to have made up. But Ojha refuses to complete this happy triangle.