Supreme Court: Giving major relief to Tej Pratap Yadav, the former Bihar Health Minister and son of RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, the 3-judge bench of Dipak Misra, CJ and AM Khanwilkar and Dr. DY Chandrachud, JJ closed the criminal proceedings against him in relation to the murder of Rajdev Ranjan, a senior reporter of a news daily, i.e., ‘Dainik Hindustan’, who was brutally murdered on 13.05.2016 by a group of persons.
The Court had, earlier, asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to complete the investigation in the matter at the earliest. The has also directed that police protection be given to the wife of the murdered Journalist as people holding party position and position in the political executive were alleged to be involved in the case as Mohammad Kaif, one of the accused, was spotted with Shahabuddin, Vice President, Rashtriya Janta Dal and Tej Pratap Yadav, former Health Minister, Government of Bihar.
The CBI, however, submitted before the Court that it is investigating into the matter with regard to the involvement of Mohammad Kaif and Mohammad Javed, who are already in custody, but it has not been link Tej Pratap Yadav with any criminal activity in so far as the photograph and the transcript are concerned.
The Court, hence, held that there was no point in keeping the writ petition pending. It, however, granted liberty to the petitioner i.e. the wife of the murdered journalist to approach the appropriate Court in case there is any kind of deviation by Tej Pratap Yadav, which would fall within the concept of criminality. [Asha Ranjan v. State of Bihar, 2018 SCC OnLine SC 264, order dated 22.03.2018]
