A court in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur issued a show-cause notice to a CBI team – which is probing the murder of a Siwan-based scribe – for declaring a witness dead, who walked into the court on Friday. The CBI in its submission before the MP/MLA court earlier had declared Badami Devi, a witness in the much-hyped murder case of journalist Rajdeo Ranjan, dead.
The central agency had on May 24 submitted before the court that Badami Devi was dead and also provided her death verification report.
On Friday, however, Badami Devi, in her 80s, presented herself before the court with an affidavit, calling it a conspiracy by the CBI. “I have been staying in my Kasera Toli residence in Siwan. I was made a witness in the case but no CBI official met me. Instead, it declared me dead, which I got to know through newspapers. It points to a conspiracy,” she was quoted as saying in her affidavit by Hindustan Times.
Four-time RJD MP from Siwan Mohammad Shahabuddin is alleged to have been involved in the murder of Ranjan, a journalist of a Hindi daily, who was killed at a busy market fruit marker in Siwan in 2016.
The case generated extensive media coverage. The Bihar government on May 17, 2016, recommended that the CBI take up the investigation of the murder case, following which the probe agency filed a case on September 15, 2016.
Ranjan’s wife Asha Ranjan, who had accused Shahabuddin of being involved in her husband’s murder, had also demanded a CBI probe in the case. The agency had questioned Shahabuddin, but he claimed that he was in prison when the murder took place. Later, he refused to undergo a lie-detection test.
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