Ex-RJD neta shot in Purnia, Tejashwi & Tej Pratap booked

Patna: The murder of a Mahadalit and former RJD leader on Sunday sparked a political controversy as the wife of the deceased has accused RJD leaders Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav, Anil Kumar Sadhu and three others of hatching a conspiracy to kill her husband. She has named them in the FIR lodged with Khajanchi Haat police station in Purnia town.Sadhu is the son-in-law of Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan and also the RJD’s state scheduled caste cell president. RJD has rubbished the allegations.
The deceased, Shakti Kumar Mallik (38), was to contest the assembly election from Raniganj (SC) seat as an independent candidate after having been expelled from RJD, his family members told the police. Mallik was earlier state general secretary of RJD’s scheduled caste cell.
Three unidentified armed criminals barged into Mallik’s house at around 6.30am and shot him dead.
Purnia SP Vishal Sharma told TOI over phone that Mallik’s wife Khushbu Devi, in the FIR, has accused Tejashwi, Tej, Anil, Kalo Paswan, his wife Sunita Devi and Manoj Paswan of hatching a conspiracy to kill her husband as he was planning to contest assembly election from Raniganj as an independent candidate.
Khushbu also alleged that her husband was asked to pay Rs50 lakh for an RJD ticket to contest election and later he was expelled from the party for not meeting the demand, the SP said.
Sharma said she has provided Mallik’s video to the police in which he labelled several allegations related to party ticket and money.
The SP said preliminary investigation revealed that Mallik had political rivalry with Kalu. “However, several messages in Mallik’s cellphone indicate that both had reached a compromise,” he said.
He said there was no direct evidence against the accused leaders in the case, but investigation was on. “Mallik was shot twice in his chest and once in forehead,” Sharma said.
He told the local media that a loaded countrymade pistol and an empty cartridge was seized from Mallik’s room. “Another firearm was also recovered from Mallik’s residence. His family said it was his licenced firearm. Verification is going on,” the SP said.
Reacting over the incident, RJD national vice-president Shivanand Tiwari said police should tear such an FIR. Tiwari said he actually has no knowledge of any such FIR against the two RJD leaders and was reacting only over the question asked to him.
“They (Tejashwi and Tej) are busy in election and police in registering such an FIR against them. This is all nonsense. How can police register such an FIR against them? Do these leaders have any criminal records?” he asked.
But BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand accused RJD of selling party tickets for election. “The RJD people are doing politics just to safeguard their family interest and earn huge wealth through illegal activities, including selling tickets for election,” Anand said. “Shakti Mallik and his family must be ensured justice while all those named in the FIR should be put behind bars,” he added.