Rashtriya Janata Dal parliamentarian from Siwan Mohammed Shahabuddin was on Saturday held guilty in the case pertaining to the kidnapping and murder of Communist Party of India �Marxist Leninist worker Chhote Lal Gupta by a local court.

Additional District and Sessions judge Gyaneshwar Prasad Srivastava pronounced Shahabuddin guilty under section 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

The quantum of sentence will be announced on May eight.

The case relates to an attack on CPI-ML's office at Khurmabad in Siwan town on September 19, 1998 in which Shahabuddin and his armed supporters were alleged to have exploded bombs, damaged furniture and assaulted office secretary Keshav Baitha.

The FIR in the case was filed on October 7, 1998 on the statement of Baitha under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement) and 448 (house trespass) of the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act.

Shahabuddin is facing 34 cases, including those of murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and violation of Foreign Exchange Act and Arms Act. Chargesheets have been filed in all these cases.

Baitha, who was brutally assaulted by Shahabuddin, and his men, had also received splinter injuries in the bomb explosion. Kaushalya Devi, mother of former Jawaharlal Nehru University president Chandrashekhar, who was shot dead at Siwan on March 31, 1997, allegedly by Shahabuddin's henchmen, was a witness in the this case.