Muzaffarpur

A CBI court here sentenced three people to life imprisonment on Wednesday for the murder of Rajdeo Ranjan, a journalist in Bihar's Siwan in 2016, officials said.

The Additional District Judge Namita Singh also slapped a total fine of Rs 1.5 lakh on convicts -- Rohit Kumar Soni, Vijay Kumar Gupta, and Sonu Kumar Gupta.

Ranjan, who was working with Hindi daily Hindustan, was shot dead at a fruit market in Siwan on May 13, 2016. His wife alleged that RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin was involved in the killing, following which the Bihar government handed over the case to the CBI.

Shahabuddin died of covid in 2021, and the case against him was abated.

According to a CBI spokesperson, the probe agency registered a case on September 15, 2016, on the request of the Bihar government and notification from the Government of India, and took over the investigation in the case earlier registered at the Siwan police station against unknown persons.

The CBI filed its charge sheet on December 21, 2016, against a minor.

It filed a robust second supplementary charge sheet against Shahabuddin, his alleged henchman Mohd Azharuddin Beg, also known as Laddan Miya, Vijay Kumar Gupta, Rohit Soni, Rajesh Kumar, Rishu Jaiswal, Sonu Kumar Gupta and the minor for criminal conspiracy and murder, among other charges under the Indian Penal Code.

The trial of the accused, who was a minor at the time of the crime, is going on before the Juvenile Court, the CBI spokesperson said.

Laddan Miyan and two other accused were acquitted for lack of evidence, defence counsel Sharad Sinha had told reporters after the conviction last week.

The court has directed the District Legal Service Authority, Muzaffarpur, to give compensation to the victim as per the law, a CBI spokesperson said.