Kumud Mishra and (right) Ashok Pathak outside Purnea Central Jail on Monday. Telegraph picture

Purnea, Feb. 7: Rupam Pathak, the prime accused in the BJP MLA Rajkishore Keshari murder case, met her husband Ashok for the first time after the January 4 incident, at Purnea Central Jail today.

At first, Kumud Mishra, Rupam’s mother, entered the jail premises followed by Ashok half-an-hour later. Both stepped out and faced the media at the jail gate.

“I delayed my trip to meet my wife because my daughter had to appear for her Class XII board exam- inations in Imphal,” said Ashok.

Ashok said he had given an application (a copy of which is with The Telegraph) to the jail superintendent V.N. Singh and some other officers concerned in which he had requested the jail administration not to allow anyone to meet Rupam except family members.

He added he had given names of seven family members for safety reasons and expressed concern over his wife’s security.

The jail superintendent told The Telegraph that the jail administration would only allow seven family members, including Kumud, Ashok, Madhumati Kumari (Kumud’s sister), Bhaskar Mishra (Rupam’s brother), Rajni Raman Jha and Rakesh Kumar Jha (Rupam’s maternal uncles) apart from advocate Dinesh Kumar to meet her.

Earlier, Ashok and Kumud had given their consent to advocate Hemant Kumar to fight the case but now they have withdrawn the case from him.

Asked about the reasons behind relieving Hemant of the case, Ashok said: “Hemant had persuaded my wife to write a letter to the chief judicial magistrate to help make her case strong. So I decided to relieve Hemant of the case.”

In response to Ashok’s statement, Hemant said Rupam was an outcast in her family and she was annoyed with her husband for pressurising her to withdraw the rape case against BJP MLA Keshari.

Hemant added Rupam had levelled charges of physical abuse against her husband and father-in-law.

Ashok also said he and Rupam had withdrawn the rape charges after political pressure was mounted on them.

Ashok said senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vinodanand Singh had threatened them to withdraw the charges.

He added that Keshari had threatened them and said their child would be abducted if the charges were not withdrawn.

Meanwhile, Rupam’s mother, Kumud, said the health of her daughter was rapidly deteriorating.

Health reports were not confirming any disease in spite of her and headache and bone pain because specialist doctors were not examining Rupam, Kumud added. She demanded that Rupam should be checked up by specialists.