Monday, May 9 2005 20:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Chapra: After serving externment from his native Siwan district for 78-days out of six months period, the order restraining Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Shahabuddin from entering the local limits of the district has been lifted.

The order to lift externment order against Shahabuddin was given by Saran Division Commissioner L Lal Sota, official sources said today (May 9, 2005).

Siwan District Magistrate C K Anil had on February 18 ordered six months externment against the RJD strongman under rule 3 of Bihar Control of Crime Ordinance, 1978.

Anil's order on Shahabuddin had come on the day when the Patna High Court had granted him bail in the last of the four criminal cases against him.

Lal Sota, who had reserved his order on the MP's externment after completion of hearing on Shahabuddin's appeal in mid-April, gave his order lifting the ban on Saturday (May 7, 2005), which came into light today. When contacted, Shahabuddin said that ''the decision came late''.

'' Despite the Patna High Court order to the Saran Divisional Commissioner on March 10 to expeditiously hear my appeal challenging the order and give order in two weeks time, it took almost two months to give the verdict, he said and termed it a ''a case of non-compliance of the HC order''.

''This (the order to lift ban on him) had had to happen because the DM's order did not justify any ground to restrain me from entering Siwan for six months'', he added.

Despite repeated efforts to get a comment from Siwan DM, he could not be contacted.

Regretting delay in giving order, Shahabuddin's counsel Y V Giri had filed a fresh petition in the Patna High Court on Friday last (May 6, 2005) complaining that despite of its order to the Saran Division commissioner on March 10 to dispose the matter in two weeks time, it had not been done.

The matter was scheduled to come for hearing before the court tomorrow (May 10, 2005), Giri said.

Shahabuddin, fourth consecutive term RJD MP from Siwan, was granted bail by the HC on February 18 in the last of the four criminal cases relating to kidnapping and murder of a Communist Party of India Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML)-Liberation leader Munna Chaudhary in which he served jail for 18 months.

But, Siwan DM booked the MP under Bihar Control of Crimes Act the same day and directed the Patna-based Beur jail authorities not to release him till February 28, the date for completion of Assembly poll process.

Six days after the DM passed the order, the then Chief Minister Rabri Devi set it aside and Shahabuddin became a free man a day after polling took place in Siwan on February 23.

But, the MP was not able to enter his home district, as Anil had externed him from the district for six months.