NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday will examine a plea seeking lodging of an FIR against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad's son and Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap Yadav, whose photograph was published in media with an alleged sharp shooter close to jailed RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin.
In September 2016, the apex court sent notices to Tej Pratap Yadav and gangster-turned-politician Shahabuddin in connection with the murder of Siwan journalist Rajdev Ranjan.
“Issue notice to Bihar Govt. and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI),” a division bench of the Apex Court headed by Justice Dipak Misra and Justice C Nagappan, said after hearing the petition filed by Asha Ranjan, the wife of the deceased journalist.
The court had given both two weeks time to submit their replies. The court also decided to monitor the CBI probe into the journalist’s murder and ordered protection to the family of the slain journalist.
Ranjan, a journalist with over 20 years of experience and the bureau chief of the Hindi daily Hindustan, was shot dead in Bihar’s Siwan district. Five shots were fired at him from extremely close range near Siwan’s railway station. Ranjan was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead.