New Delhi: Tihar jail authorities have now provided cable TV and telephone and other facilities to Bihar don-turned politician Mohammed Shahabuddin on a par with gangster Chhota Rajan, who is lodged in the same prison.

Shahabuddin had gone on hunger strike in March demanding parity and similar facilities - television sets, access to books and newspaper and medical facilities - given to Rajan inside his solitary cell. Shahabuddin's demand of parity had been ignored.

"He has been provided with similar facilities which have been given to Chhota Rajan, which include cable TV, access to books and newspapers and other basic facilities," said a jail official.

Shahabuddin, who was once the unchallenged don of Siwan in Bihar, had also moved Delhi High Court demanding basic facilities inside his solitary cell similar to those given to Rajan, a friend-turned-foe of mafia lord Dawood Ibrahim. The Siwan don's lawyer had argued that the prison authorities were handing out step-motherly treatment to his client.

The court had asked the prison authorities to expeditiously decide the representation by Shahabuddin and also to dispose of his plea that claimed he was being kept in solitary confinement and tortured in Tihar Jail.

Shahabuddin was shifted from Siwan district jail to Tihar in February last year on the directions of the Supreme Court to ensure fair trial in some 45 criminal cases pending against him in Bihar. He is also serving a life sentence in connection with a double murder case.

Rajan was deported in November 2015 from Indonesia after being on the run for 27 years. Sources said Rajan is being treated with kid gloves and had been given facilities, including food of his choice, soft beds and TV, inside his cell on the instruction of security agencies. Fellow prisoners have to make do with dal, roti and sabzi; they sleep on the floor and are only provided blankets.

Rajan has been given three layers of security outside his cell because of the perception of threat to his life from Dawood.