Patna, Jan. 10: A criminal case of 1996, which nearly cost Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) politician Mohammad Taslimuddin his berth in the Manmohan Singh ministry, might return to haunt the Kishanganj MP once again.

That is, if the new Bihar government?s plea before the Supreme Court today is any indication.

The Rabri Devi government had decided to withdraw the case against Taslimuddin in September 2004 but a petition was subsequently filed before the apex court challenging the withdrawal.

Advocate-general P.K. Shahi, in Delhi in connection with this and other cases, told The Telegraph: ?We said in the court that the government would take a decision which is in accordance with the law. We are committed to do so.?

Taslimuddin is the minister of state for agriculture and consumer affairs.

Charges had been pressed against Taslimuddin for offences like attempt to murder by forming unlawful assembly and using firearms and explosives. The order to issue warrants was passed on August 23, 1999. The politician was declared an absconder on March 9, 2000, the day a property attachment order was also issued against him.

According to the FIR and subsequent submissions by Manzar Alam, Taslimuddin, along with around 15 of his supporters, came to Rajokhar village in Araria on October 11, 1996, with the intention of killing him. They opened indiscriminate fire and hurled bombs on the spot. Explosive material and used cartridges were recovered from the place.

Taslimuddin had to quit as minister of state for home in the H.D. Deve Gowda government in 1996 after the matter became public.

Controversy gripped the RJD parliamentarian after then BJP vice-president Sushil Kumar Modi, now the deputy chief minister, produced documents in August 2004, indicating that non-bailable arrest warrants and property attachment orders were pending against Taslimuddin.

The RJD government?s decision to drop the case came on two grounds ? that there was no sufficient evidence in the matter and that the complainant, Alam, had also decided to withdraw the case.

But the petitioners? counsel had contended that the government had no authority to drop the case since charges were pressed against the accused under one section each of the Arms Act and the Explosive Substances Act. He had urged the court not to quash the non-bailable warrants against the minister.

In another development, the government withdrew one of its petitions on panchayat elections from the Supreme Court, paving the way for the provision of reservations on ?single posts? like those of mukhia and zilla parishad chairman.

Shahi said: ?The government withdrew the petitions so that it can promulgate a new act and subsequent rules for the panchayat systems. The government intends to reserve the single posts as well.?