Former RJD leader Shakti Malik, who was shot dead at his home in Bihar’s Purnea on Sunday morning, had accused Tejashwi Yadav of demanding Rs 50 lakh from him in order to allow him to contest from the Raniganj seat in the upcoming assembly elections.
File photo of Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav (Photo Credits: PTI)
RJD leaders Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav have been named in an FIR for the murder of 37-year-old Dalit leader Shakti Malik. A former member of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Malik was shot dead outside his residence in Bihar’s Purnea district on Sunday.
Chief of RJD’s Dalit cell Anil Sadhu, the party’s leaders from Araria Kalo Paswan, Sunita Devi and five others have also been named as accused in the FIR. Earlier on October 4, Shakti Malik’s wife had alleged that his death was a political killing.
After being expelled from the party led by former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, Shakti Malik (37) had decided to contest the upcoming assembly elections as an independent candidate. In a video, Malik had even accused RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav of seeking Rs 50 lakh as donation to allot the party ticket to contest the poll from Raniganj seat.
Malik was gunned down by three masked men who barged into his home in Purnea district at around 3 am in the early hours of Sunday. His wife, children and driver were the only ones at home at the time. Going by reports, Malik was rushed to the Sadar Hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival.
SHO of K Haat police station, Sunil Kumar Mandal said a country-made pistol and an empty cartridge have been recovered from the scene of the crime. Top officials, including SP Vishal Sharma and Sadar Sub-Divisional Police Officer Anand Pandey also visited the spot.
With the 2020 Bihar polls less than a month away, the JD(U) claimed Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav ‘exposed his true colours before the nation’.
Shakti Malik had also alleged in his viral video that Tejashwi Yadav made a casteist remark against him when he visited the latter in Patna along with RJD’s Dalit unit chief.
(With inputs from PTI)