'Dead' witness appears in Muzaffarpur scribe murder case

MUZAFFARPUR: A witness in the journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder case, who was declared dead by the CBI, presented herself on Friday before the Muzaffarpur court, which issued a show-cause notice to the investigating agency for submitting a false death report.
CBI is investigating the case.
The additional sessions judge-cum-special judge of the court, Punit Kumar Garg, served the notice on the CBI and directed it to submit its reply before the next date of hearing on June 20.
Rajdeo, a journalist who worked with a vernacular daily, was shot dead in 2016 by a group of five miscreants on his way home in Siwan.
Earlier, the CBI had sought summons for the examination of witness Badami Devi, which the court had issued. However, on May 24, the central probe agency declared her dead and also submitted her death verification report before the court. Badami appeared before the court on Friday with her documents and affidavit. “I have been staying at my Kasera Toli residence in Siwan. I was made a witness in the case, but no CBI official met me. However, the CBI declared me dead, which I came to know through newspapers. It is a conspiracy,” she said in her affidavit.
“The act of the premier institution of investigation appears to be suspicious. Now there is no hesitation to say that CBI has done this kind of work in connivance with another witness. It is submitted that CBI is playing a big game to implicate falsely the accused persons, especially Vijay Kumar and Azharuddin Beig,” the petitioners’ counsel, Sharad Sinha, told the court.
CBI’s act is “strange and shocking”, he told reporters outside the court. The Bihar government had on May 17, 2016, recommended the journalist murder case to CBI for a thorough probe. CBI registered the case on September 15, 2016.