PATNA: RJD MP Mohammed Shahabuddin faces disqualification from contesting elections in future after a court here sentenced him to life imprisonment for the abduction of a CPI-ML-Liberation worker eight years ago.

According to section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act of 1951, a person convicted for an offence and sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more would be disqualified from contesting elections in future. Since Shahabuddin is facing life imprisonment, he may be debarred from contesting the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, legal experts said.

The experts, however, said Shahabuddin could retain his membership of the Lok Sabha till 2009 as he would not be under any legal compulsion to resign in the wake of today's verdict, which he is free to appeal. "There is no legal compulsion for Shahabuddin to resign and he can continue in the Lok Sabha," Y V Giri, a senior advocate of Patna High Court who is contesting the MP's case, told PTI.

Additional Director General of Police (headquarters) Abhayanand said though it was not obligatory for Shahabuddin to resign from the Lower House, he would not be able to contest polls if his conviction was not stayed by a superior court till the next Lok Sabha polls. While the RJD is maintaining a stony silence on Shahabuddin's conviction, Bihar's ruling BJP-JD-U combine has demanded his immediate resignation from the Lok Sabha. Shahabuddin had lost the moral right to continue in the Lok Sabha and he should quit immediately, the alliance's leaders said.

Senior CPI-ML leader Santosh Sahar said the MP should resign as he had been convicted for the second time. On March two, the RJD strongman was sentenced to two years in prison for an attack on a CPI-ML office at Kurmabad in Siwan town on September 19,1998 in which the party's office secretary Keshav Baith was kidnapped and assaulted.

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