Bike-borne assailants killed key witness in Yusuf murder case

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Siwan (Bihar): Unknown bike-borne assailants killed a key witness in the Yusuf murder case on Wednesday. The key witness is identified as Shyam Babu said police.

Yusuf, the nephew of former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, was shot dead on February 1.

Shahabuddin was elected four times as a Member of Parliament (MP) from Siwan. He was imprisoned for 11 years for his involvement in the murder of Rajiv Roshan.

The death of Yusuf came less than a week after a Bihar court framed charges against Shahabuddin and seven others in connection with journalist Rajdev Ranjan's murder case.

In another case, A sessions court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced a 40-year-old woman to life imprisonment for torturing and killing her minor stepdaughter with physical and mental disabilities. The victim who was 6-year-old was found dead at her residence in Bhandup with burns and assault marks all over her body in 2015. The accused, Pratibha Sawant's older stepdaughter informed the court about the merciless assault she and her sister were subjected to by their step-mother.

The accused's husband Rajesh Sawant sought the release of his wife stating they had a 4-year-old son who lived with his mother in jail. Following the conviction, the court granted the child's custody to his father. Both the victim and her sister were Rajesh's children from his first marriage after his first wife had left him. He then married Pratibha Sawant in 2013. Rajesh in his statement told the court that the victim was unable to perform any activities on her own due to her mental and physical disability and this annoyed the accused who had to take care of his children while he was at work plying his autorickshaw. He also stated that Pratibha would fight with him frequently and request him to send the child to an ashram.

He added, when he returned from work on November 29, 2015, he found both his daughters sleeping. He woke up the following morning and tried to wake the victim up to take her to the washroom. He then noticed that her body was stiff and cold. Afraid, he called their family doctor, who told him about the injuries on the victim's body and suggested to take her to a hospital. When they rushed her to the hospital, she was declared dead on arrival. When he and his family members questioned Pratibha Sawant about the incident, she confessed the crime but showed no remorse. A case was then registered with the Bhandup police.

(With inputs from PTI)

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