Journalist Rajdev Ranjan, who worked with Hindi daily 'Hindustan', was shot dead in 2016 by a group of five miscreants on his way home in Siwan, sparking nationwide outrage and protests.

The 'Dead' Witness Appeared

• A witness declared dead by the CBI in the journalist Rajdev Ranjan murder case appeared before the Muzaffarpur court on Friday.
• The witness, Badami Devi, was declared dead by the CBI on May 24 and the investigating agency also submitted her death verification report before the court. The CBI submitted the report after it had sought summons for the examination of Devi.
• "I have been staying at my Kasera Toli residence in Siwan. I was made a witness in the case but no CBI official met me. However, the CBI declared me dead, which I came to know through newspapers. It is a conspiracy," she said
• Representing the petitioners, advocate Sharad Sinha told the court that the CBI's act appeared to be suspicious.
• The name of late RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin had cropped up in connection with the case after Ranjan's wife accused him of having a role in the killing. CBI had also interrogated Shahabuddin, who claimed that he was in jail when the incident took place.

A Brief over Rajdev Ranjan

• Rajdev Ranjan, also known as Rajdeo Ranjan, born in 1971, who was an Indian journalist for the Hindustan Daily in Siwan, Bihar, India, was shot on May 13, 2016.
• He is known to have been writing against Mohammad Shahabuddin, a former Rashtriya Janata Dal MP, who was serving a life sentence in prison for being connected to the murder of two brothers. Five contract killers were arrested, during the same month of Ranjan's murder, on May 25, 2016.