High Court orders taking Shahabuddin to AIIMS in police custody

The appeal of incarcerated Siwan MP Mohammad Shahabuddin for specialised treatment for his nagging spinal problem was granted today with the Patna High Court ordering that he be taken to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi.

The order was passed by Justice V N Sinha on the basis of a confidential report of the state medical board submitted to the court by Advocate General P K Shahi.

The court directed that Shahabuddin, currently lodged at Siwan divisional jail, be immediately taken to AIIMS in police custody and ordered the AIIMS to submit a report to the court on his condition in two weeks time.

The state medical board report was based on the recommendation of a four-member team of doctors of the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) which examined the MP in Siwan divisional jail on July 20.

The fourth-term RJD MP facing nearly three dozen criminal cases, including those of kidnapping and murder, had filed a petition in the Patna High Court seeking its direction to the state government to send him outside the state for specialised treatment of his 10-year-old spinal problem which he claimed had aggravated after May 10, two days after he was shifted to Siwan from the Bhagalpur jail.

Accepting his prayer, a single Bench of Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad had earlier this month short-listed a panel of three doctors - A K Jain of AIIMS, Maniyar of Breach Candy (Mumbai) and Vikram Kashyap of Sagar Apollo (Bangalore) to examine the MP.

But, the doctors in the panel either declined to do so or were found "non-existant", following which the state medical board was asked to submit its report.

On July 18, Justice Prasad directed the state medical board to once again conduct health check-up of the MP. The state medical board had already examined Shahabuddin five times and did not recommend taking him outside Siwan for treatment.

The sixth examination of Shahabuddin by a team of the state medical board was conducted on July 20 and the report of the panel recommending sending the MP to AIIMS, was submitted today.

During the hearing of Shahabuddin's petition in the past, his lawyer Y V Giri had charged the state government with "neglecting" the health problem of his client and had also termed as "eyewash" the earlier report of the board recommending the MP's treatment inside Siwan jail itself.

Shahabuddin's partymen, including RJD president and railway minister Lalu Prasad had visited the MP at Siwan jail and demanded his treatment by leading neuro-surgeons of the country.

A state RJD delegation led by its president Abdul Bari Siddiqui had also petitioned Bihar governor R S Gavai earlier this month seeking specialised treatment for Shahabuddin outside the state.

Complaining of acute backache, the MP has been appearing in the special courts of Additional District and Sessions Judge Gyaneshwar Prasad Srivastava and that of First Class Judicial Magistrate V B Gupta inside the Siwan jail trying criminal cases against Shahabuddin, on stretcher.

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