Former Rashtriya Janata Dal MP from Bihar’s Siwan, Mohammad Shahabuddin, died on Saturday, The Indian Express reported. He was 53.

Shahabuddin was admitted to Delhi’s Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital after testing positive for coronavirus on April 20, Director General of Tihar Jail Sandeep Goel said. Prison officials told PTI that he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital a couple of days ago.

Shahabuddin, who was serving a life sentence in the Delhi prison in a 2004 double murder case, was in critical condition and doctors were planning to shift him to Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital, according to The Indian Express.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav offered his condolences. “The untimely death of former MP Mohammad Shahabuddin due to coronavirus is a painful news,” Yadav tweeted. “...His death is a huge loss for the party. RJD stands in support of his bereaved family.”

On December 9, 2015, a special judge in Bihar’s Siwan convicted Shahabuddin and his associates in a 2004 double murder case and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Two brothers, Satish and Girish Roshan, were murdered in August 2004 in Siwan for allegedly refusing to pay extortion money. A third brother, Rajiv Roshan, who was a witness to the crime committed by Shahabuddin’s men, was shot dead on June 6, 2014, when he was on his way to a trial court to depose against the strongman.

The conviction and sentencing of Shahabuddin and three others was eventually upheld by the Patna High Court and the Supreme Court. The former Rashtriya Janata Dal leader was shifted to Tihar from Siwan Jail following a Supreme Court order on February 15, 2018.

Covid scare for prisoners

Shahabuddin’s death came after the Centre asked states to “earmark appropriate health facilities” for prison inmates who test positive for the coronavirus and cannot be treated at a hospital within the jail premises, the Economic Times reported on Friday.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court had directed the Uttar Pradesh government to shift journalist Siddique Kappan from Mathura Jail to a government hospital in Delhi after a plea was filed, citing that he had contracted the virus.

Last week, gangster Chhota Rajan was admitted to Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences after he contracted the infection. Jailed Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Mukhtar Ansari and Samajwadi Party leader Mohammad Azam Khan have also tested positive for the virus.

Besides this, reports of prisoners getting infected have emerged from Chandigarh and Madurai too.