SC fires at MP for his gun craze

New Delhi: Controversial Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP from Siwan, Mohammad Shahabuddin, has no reason to be happy.

The Supreme Court on Monday slammed Shahabuddin, who is seeking bail in a case related to the possession of arms and ammunition.

News agency PTI quoted the decision of the SC which said the case was not a normal case of keeping firearms.

“There was a telescopic device, bulletproof jackets etc,” PTI quoted a bench comprising Justices G P Mathur and L S Panta as saying.

The bench was referring to the recoveries made by the police during a raid at the MP's ancestral house in Pratapur in Siwan District.

The bench noticed that it was not a normal case of keeping firearms, and wanted to know from the jailed MP's counsel Nagender Rai whether the accused had a licence for them and if can produce it.

Raj replied in affirmative and wanted time to produce the same.

Referring to the recoveries, the bench observed, “are you (Shahabuddin) a member of the armed forces and under what authority you have been keeping these?”

"You are not a security personnel. You do not require all these," PTI quoted the bench further.

They took a strong objection to the fact that 1000 cartridges were recovered from the MP's house during the raid.

"You are janata ka sevak (people's representative) and you need 1000 cartridges," PTI quoted the anguished Bench as saying.

When the senior advocate said that Shahabuddin has to keep arms as there was threat to his life from CPI-ML activists, the bench said "it is extraneous".

"By virtue of being an MP or an MLA, are you entitled to keep these weapons," the court said and strongly objected to the recovery of a 'night vision device'.

"You need it (night vision device) when even the police, CRPF and other security agency do not have (it) and only the army possesses it," the court added.

At the beginning of the hearing, the court also noted that there were some 52 criminal cases against Shahabuddin. But, his counsel said that the MP has been granted bail in most of the cases.

After the counsel said that he will place some additional documents relating to the licences of the weapons and bulletproof jacket and copies of the FIRs, the court posted the matter for further hearing after two weeks.

Several cases were registered against Shahabuddin after the April 2005 raid at this residence at village Pratapur in Siwan district of Bihar and one of them was in connection with the recovery of many sophisticated weapons and ammunition.

Police had recovered firearms with the stamp of Pakistan Ordinance Factory.