|
|
|
|
|
Author: Press Trust Of India
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 10, 2006
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/archive_full_story.php?content_id=87620
The problems for RJD MP Shahabuddin seem to be far from over as the police in Jammu and Kashmir are likely to question him for his alleged links with the pro-Pakistan Hizbul Mujahideen.
Shahabuddin, who has been in judicial custody after his arrest last year in connection with various cases, including murder and abductions, could face tough questions as the state police claims he received two consignments of arms from Kupwara in early 2000, which included deadly Kalashnikov rifles as well, official sources said.
They said they had earlier asked the Bihar police to help trace the MP but could not manage to get him. ''We were told by our Bihar counterparts that the MP was not traceable,'' a senior officer, engaged with the investigation, said.
A Hizbul militant, Mushtaq Ahmed, had allegedly confessed during interrogation that he had supplied the rifles and pistols to Shahabuddin in Delhi. A report on this had also been sent to the Union Home Ministry.
Sources said Ahmed told the police that Shahabuddin had visited Kupwara town on three occasions. The state police, along with central intelligence agencies, had sent a report to the home ministry and also shared this information with the Bihar DGP and the IGP, Muzaffarpur.
The police report claimed that the MP had got in touch with some Kashmiri students studying at Siwan's dental college. They, the report said, turned out to be Hizbul sleeping cells. On their insistence, Shahabuddin is believed to have travelled to Kulan Gaon in Kupwara and met senior Hizbul commanders and fixed the arms supply deal.
The first consignment comprising three AK-47 rifles and three pistols were sent to him in an apple truck and the MP is alleged to have received them from Delhi's Azadpur Subzi Mandi. Sources said the arms were later taken to a house in Muzaffarpur. The second consignment comprised only three AK-47 rifles and the delivery of the same were allegedly taken by Shahabuddin from Murthal on the outskirts of Delhi before being smuggled to Patna.
Interestingly, Bihar police recovered the consignment but did not arrest the MP despite being given all the evidence by the Jammu and Kashmir police. But the MP's luck ran out in April last year when he was arrested following recovery of self-loading rifles from his ancestral house in Siwan.
 |
|
|
