Woman declared dead by CBI, appears in court

MUZZAFARPUR: In a major development in Bihar journalist Rajdev Ranjan's murder case, a witness, who was allegedly declared dead by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), reached the court on Saturday. The woman, Badami Devi, appeared before the judge in a civil court here and claimed that the CBI had declared her dead.

"Huzoor (sir), I am alive. I have been declared dead by the CBI. This has been done under a well-thought-out conspiracy," the woman told the court. The woman showed her identification proof in court including a voter ID card, and a PAN card.

The petitioner's advocate Sharad Sinha said that Badami Devi was a key witness in the case and a report filed by the CBI on May 24 declared her dead. Advocate Sinha raised further questions on CBI and called it a "big negligence" on the investigating agency's part.

"It is big negligence on CBI's part. What will happen if the nation's biggest investigating agency will act like this?" Sinha asked. He further stated that the CBI did not even contact the woman and declared the woman dead, moreover, a report was also submitted.

The court issued a show-cause notice to the CBI over the matter. Ranjan, the Siwan bureau chief of Hindi daily Hindustan, was shot dead in May 2017. He was gunned down by motorbike-borne criminals near the busy Station Road at Siwan in north Bihar.

Ranjan's widow Asha Ranjan had sought direction for the registration of an FIR against RJD leader Shahabuddin and Tej Pratap Yadav for "conspiracy and harbouring and sheltering the proclaimed offenders" in the murder case. In 2017, the CBI took custody of Mohammad Shahabuddin, whose name had cropped up as an accused in the investigation. However, in March 2018, the Supreme Court had closed proceedings against Tej Pratap in connection with this case.

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