Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday wrote a letter to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, asking him to order a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into murder of a “political-social worker of Purnia district”.
Mr. Yadav and his brothers are named in the FIR pertaining to the case.
The Purnia police arrested seven persons in connection with the Shakti Mallik murder on Wednesday and claimed to have solved the case.
Former RJD leader and social worker Shakti Mallik was murdered in Purnia district on October 4 at his residence and later, in the FIR lodged at the local Khajanchi Haat police station, Tejashwi Yadav and his older brother Tej Pratap, along with four others, were named as accused persons in the case by Khushboo Devi, wife of the deceased. In poll-bound Bihar, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leaders and party spokespersons slammed the RJD leaders for being named in the murder case and demanded action.
“Because of some pressing engagements, I came to know about this incident late, but I also saw that after my name and my brother’s name in a prompted FIR, stories of media management started coming in, along with cheap statements by your party spokespersons…but despite all this, I think, law should take its own course in this case with a speedy investigation,” Tejashwi Yadav wrote in the letter addressed to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Mr. Tejashwi Yadav also asked for the CM’s recommendation to “get the case investigated soon by any national or international investigative agencies”, and being Home Minister of the State, he said, Mr. Kumar could even get him arrested for interrogation even before he [Mr.Yadav] had filed his nomination papers in the Assembly elections. “I hope you will think over it and immediately recommend to hand over the case to CBI for inquiry,” Mr. Yadav said at the conclusion of his one-page letter.
The other four accused persons named in the FIR are Anil Kumar Sadhu, Kalo Paswan, his wife Sunita Devi, and Manoj Paswan. Anil Kumar Sadhu is the son-in-law of Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and president of the RJD’s State Scheduled Caste cell. He was earlier in the Lok Janshakti Party.
The deceased, Shakti Mallik, 38, was the former RJD State secretary for the party’s SC/ST cell, and wanted to contest the upcoming State Assembly elections from the Raniganj (reserved) seat of the neighboring Araria district. Earlier, in a video which went viral on social media, the deceased made serious allegations against RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Anil Kumar Sadhu for demanding ₹50 lakh to ensure a ticket to contest the Assembly election on an RJD ticket.
The deceased joined the RJD in 2019 and was made State SC/ST cell secretary of the party, but after he was denied a ticket, he made serious allegations against party leaders and was expelled from the RJD.
His wife Khushboo Devi has charged in the FIR that since her husband was to contest the Assembly election as an Independent candidate, he was “eliminated at the behest of RJD leaders, including Tejashwi Yadav”.