Patna, Jan. 10: The CBI has sought a report from the state government on minority welfare minister Abdul Gafoor's meeting with don-turned-politician Mohammad Shahabuddin in Siwan jail last year.

The CBI, which is probing Siwan journalist Rajdev Ranjan's murder case, wrote to the state last week. Asha Ranjan, the widow of Siwan bureau chief of Hindi daily Hindustan Rajdev, had earlier alleged that Shahabuddin was unhappy with reports in the newspaper about Gafoor's meeting with Shahabuddin and about a feast thrown for the minister in jail, which prompted the don to get her husband killed.

Gafoor and RJD MLA Harishankar Yadav had met Shahabuddin in the jail on March 3, 2016. The photo of the meeting had gone viral on social media on March 8 last year.

The meeting of Gafoor with Shahabuddin, the former RJD MP from Siwan, snowballed into a political controversy with opposition parties assailing the Grand Alliance government on the issue. Though principal secretary, home, Amir Subhani on Tuesday claimed ignorance on any query from the CBI, sources in the investigating agency said that the CBI wanted to know the purpose of the minister's visit to the Siwan jail and whether the prescribed rules of the jail manual were followed or not during the meeting.

An official of the jail said the CBI has asked the jail administration under what circumstances a murder convict was allowed to throw a party for the minister.

Gafoor, who represents Saharsa district's Mahishi constituency in the Assembly, is considered close to RJD chief Lalu Prasad while Harishankar is known as a confidant of Shahabuddin.

The don is serving a life term after being convicted in a kidnapping-cum-murder case.

On May 13, Rajdev was shot dead when he was returning home from his office on his motorbike. The case was handed over to the CBI on Asha's demand.

When contacted about the CBI letter, Gafoor declined to comment. Siwan jail superintendent Vidhu Bhardwaj said he would provide relevant information to the investigating agency, if required.

"It's a confidential matter, which I am not supposed to share with the media," the jail superintendent told The Telegraph over the phone from Siwan on Tuesday.

A jail official said that then jail superintendent Radhe Shyam Suman was put under suspension for dereliction of duty after the feast. Later, a joint team of the district administration and the police carried out surprise checks in the prisoners' ward in which Shahabuddin was lodged.

On Monday night, the officials again searched the wards of Mohammad Kaif - a shooter allegedly close to the don - and Shahabuddin but nothing objectionable was found. The raiding team, however, recovered a mobile phone and a charger from the prison garden. Last week, jail officials had seized four mobile phones, three SIM cards and some chargers from the jail and an FIR was lodged against three prisoners.