NEW DELHI, 7 November 2005 — Indian President A.P.J Abdul Kalam yesterday accepted the resignation from Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s ministerial council of a junior minister who faces arrest for illegally freeing his brother from police custody.

“The president of India has been pleased to accept, on the prime minister’s recommendation, the resignation of Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav, minister of state for water resources, from the Council of Ministers with immediate effect,” a communique from Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace, said.

Yadav, who has been on the run since a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued against him last month, submitted his resignation on Saturday. Yadav belongs to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

Earlier Saturday, RJD MP Muhammad Shahabuddin, against whom more than 30 criminal cases are pending and who has been in hiding for the past two months, was arrested from his official residence here.

Yadav is accused of using his influence to get his brother, Vijay Prakash, released from custody during the first phase of the Bihar Assembly elections. Prakash, the RJD candidate from the Jamui constituency, was arrested on Oct. 18 with arms, ammunition, cash and liquor with which he intended to bribe voters, police said. A Bihar police team had Friday raided Yadav’s official residence here but returned empty handed.

Yadav is the second minister in Dr. Manmohan Singh’s government to be raided. Jharkhand police had last year raided the house of Coal Minister Shibu Soren who was wanted in a rioting case registered in the 1970s.

Soren later surrendered in Ranchi, was jailed and is now out on bail.

Muscle Power Helped

Shahabuddin’s Rise

Shahabuddin, who was arrested in New Delhi after evading arrest for more than two months, personifies the criminalization of Indian politics. Shahabuddin was wanted in over 30 criminal cases including those of murder.

Though he was away from his native village of Siwan for over two-and-a-half years, he contested and won the parliamentary elections in 2004 from behind bars.

He was released from Beur jail in Patna in February after languishing there for 18 months in connection with the murder of Chandra Shekhar, an activist of the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML).

Soon he was externed from entering Siwan by the district administration fearing that his presence would create trouble during the assembly polls in the state in February.

After his release, he claimed that he would go all-out to ensure the formation of an RJD-led government in Bihar as the party had failed to get a majority. Lalu’s RJD depended on him to lobby for support of independent legislators with the help of his famous muscle power.

Shahabuddin even visited the Buxar jail to meet an independent legislator lodged there, but he ultimately failed to get the magic number for the party.

After that, he spent most of his time either in Delhi and Patna, even as a non-bailable arrest warrant was issued against him in connection with the recovery of illegal firearms and ammunition during a raid on his ancestral home in Pratappur village in Siwan district in April.

In spite of the warrant, he roamed freely in Bihar and addressed public meetings even as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and CPI-ML cried foul at the administration’s laxity.

He dared authorities when he said that he was neither absconding nor evading arrest. In one of his many TV interviews, the fugitive lawmaker had said: “I am not dacoit Malkhan Singh, I fear none except God.”

The fugitive lawmaker created a stir in September when he reportedly appeared for a law examination in Muzaffarpur in Bihar.

His rise was thanks to his muscle power and the support he received from sections of Muslims as well as upper caste Hindus.