A CBI court on Friday framed charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against Rupam Pathak, a school teacher accused of stabbing a BJP legislator to death in January.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court fixed June 16 for taking up deposition of witnesses and examination of documents. “The court framed charges against Rupam Pathak under section 304, which is a big relief for her,” her lawyer Dinesh Kumar said. Pathak is lodged in Beur jail in Patna for the murder of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Raj Kishore Kesri. Pathak alleged that Kesri, the legislator from Purnia constituency, raped her for over three years — a charge the BJP refuted. According to police, Rupam Pathak, in her mid-40s, went to Kesri’s home in Purnia and stabbed him to death in the presence of a number of people.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar had ordered a CBI probe into the murder. In April, the CBI court in Patna granted bail to Navlesh Pathak, editor of an English weekly and co-accused in the murder of Raj Kishore Kesri. The court granted bail to Pathak after the CBI failed to file a chargesheet against him within the stipulated 90 days.