CBI readies to probe Bihar legislator’s murder
By IANSWednesday, January 12, 2011
PATNA - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will probe the sensational murder of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Raj Kishore Kesri by a woman teacher who had accused him of rape, Bihar Police chief Neelmani said Wednesday.
“CBI director A.P. Singh has assured us that the country’s premier investigative agency will soon take up the case,” Neelmani told IANS.
He added that Bihar Police had already formally requested the CBI to investigate the Jan 4 murder.
Kesri, a BJP legislator from Purnea constituency, was stabbed to death in his home by Rupam Pathak, who alleged the politician and his close colleagues had raped her for over three years.
A court last Thursday sent Pathak, 40, to judicial custody for 14 days.
The state police have also arrested a journalist, Navlesh Pathak, editor of Purnea-based English weekly Quisling, which first published the report on the sexual abuse of Rupam Pathak.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Saturday ordered a CBI probe into the case. Opposition parties, including Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad as well as the Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), have demanded a judicial inquiry or a CBI probe into the case.
The demand had also come from Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, under attack from opposition parties and women organisations for allegedly influencing the probe into the case. It was the deputy chief minister, a BJP legislator and Kesri’s party colleague, who had ruled out a CBI probe into the case three days ago.
