Patna:
School teacher Rupam Pathak was today sentenced to life imprisonment by a special CBI court for killing BJP MLA Rajkishore Keshri in Bihar's Purnia town last year.
Designated CBI Judge B N Singh had earlier pronounced her guilty of stabbing Keshri to death on January 4, 2011 and fixed today as the date to decide the quantum of punishment.
On April 2, 2011, the central investigative agency had filed the charge sheet against Ms Pathak under Indian Penal Code's section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder carrying a maximum punishment of life imprisonment).
Ms Pathak had stabbed Mr Keshri in his house at Sipahi Tola in January 2011, after smuggling a kitchen knife into a janta darbar at his residence.
Back then, Mr Keshri had just been re-elected for the fourth time. He died minutes after Ms Rupam attacked him. She was in turn assaulted by people at the darbar.
Way back in June 2010, Ms Rupam filed a police case accusing Mr Keshri of raping her in 2007. She later retracted that statement in court. In September 2010, she went back to court declaring that she had withdrawn her case against Mr Keshri under pressure from her in-laws and other people. Four months later she stabbed him in full public view.
Soon after the murder of Mr Keshri, the Chief Minister had recommended a CBI probe into the killing.