With the Supreme Court ordering the CBI to complete investigation into the high profile murder of Siwan scribe Rajdeo Ranjan in three months, there is apprehension among the followers of Mohammad Shahabuddin that the former Siwan MP might be named in the case. Ranjan’s widow Asha has repeatedly accused him of having a hand in the murder of her husband who had been gunned down in a market in Siwan on March 13 last.
The CBI has already taken three months in taking up the case after the Bihar Government forwarded it to the premier agency at the request of the bereaved family. If CBI names Shahabuddin in this case too there would be no surprise since most of the accused and suspected people arrested so far by the police have direct or indirect connection with the RJD strongman.
The CBI wanted six months time but the division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice Dipak Misra and Amitabh Roy directed the agency to complete the probe within three months. The bench also asked the Session Judge of Siwan about the photographs of one of the murder accused Mohammad Kaif with Shahabuddin and Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav. The apex court wanted to know if Kaif had been issued non-bailable warrant when he met the two with bouquets. The two pleaded that the person met them at a public function.
Scribe’s widow Asha, who had expressed lack of confidence in the local police while demanding CBI probe, said she was still living under fear. “I have petitioned that Shahabuddin be shifted to a jail late last month had been lodged in Siwan jail.
For her security, the Supreme Court on September 23 had directed the Siwan SP and local police to provide her security “so that the petitioner, the lady in distress, shall feel protected.”
Asha said the security was anything but adequate as two constables had been deployed and one of them recently went off without permission and has since been suspended. The security also proved disastrous for the bereaved family as the policemen forced two of the families living there on rent and it was the only source of income for the family. She said not only the tenants were forced to vacate she has also been asked to make arrangement for the stay of the constables in the same house. Asha lives with her younger daughter while the son studying in Cass XI in a Delhi school.
Asha alleged that despite the intervention of the apex court she got no much respite and was living under constant fear. She said Shahabuddin enjoyed immense clout and might influence the investigation. “I have no doubt that Shahabuddin had hatched conspiracy to kill my husband who had written against him,” she said.
The Shahabuddin supporters apprehend that their leader might be shifted to Delhi. The angry followers, mostly associated with the RJD held dharna and protest in most of the blocks in Siwan on Tuesday and raised slogans against the Nitish Kumar Government. Everywhere the dharna was led by block presidents of RJD. Only last week, the RJD workers of Siwan and Gopalganj districts had passed a resolution expelling party supremo lalu Prasad after accusing him of being party to petition in the Supreme Court for the cancellation of Shahabuddin’s bail which was granted by the Patna high court on September 7.