Shahabuddin charge-sheeted in journalist murder case

Former Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Mohammad Shahabuddin was on Tuesday chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation in a special court in Muzaffarpur for the offences of murder and criminal conspiracy in the killing of journalist Rajdeo Ranjan in May last year.

Sunil Singh Rawat, the investigating officer of the case, and public prosecutor Deep Narayan submitted the chargesheet against Shahabuddin, a four-time MP from Siwan, and six others before CBI judge Anupam Kumari.

Defence lawyer Sharad Sinha said that the other accused against whom the agency has filed the chargesheet are Azahruddin Beig alias Laddan Mian, Rishi Kumar Jaiswal, Rohit Kumar Soni, Vijay Kumar Gupta, Ranjeet Kumar and Sonu Kumar Gupta.

This is a supplementary charge sheet by the CBI as the agency had filed its earlier charge sheet against one accused in December, 2016.

Bihar Police had chargesheeted six persons in the case before the probe was taken over by the agency. A total of eight accused have been charge-sheeted so far in the case.

The CBI has charged Shahabuddin, currently lodged in the high-security Tihar Jail in Delhi, under Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy and murder and provisions of Arms Act, a statement from the agency said Muzaffarpur.

"The chargesheet has been filed under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with 302 (murder) of the IPC as well as section 27 of the Arms Act," Sinha told PTI over phone.

The chargesheet has not been submitted against two other accused Mohammad Javed and Mohammad Kaif who are out on bail in the case as the investigation is currently underway, Sinha said.

It may be noted that the special CBI court on May 26 had made Shahabuddin an accused in the murder case.

The four-time RJD MP from Siwan is alleged to have been involved in the murder of Rajdeo Ranjan, a journalist of a prominent Hindi daily in Siwan.

Shahabuddin is facing trial in more than 45 criminal cases.

He was moved to the Tihar Jail in February this year on a Supreme Court order on a plea by Siwan native Chandrakeshwar Prasad whose three sons were killed in two separate incidents.

Rajdeo Ranjan, district bureau chief of the Hindi daily, was gunned down on May 13 last year and his wife had accused Shahabuddin of having a role in the killing.