Patna: Patna High Court slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on the Bihar government on Tuesday for not filing its reply to the court in the murder case of senior BJP leader Visheshwar Ojha.

Rajnath Ojha, nephew of the murdered Bihar BJP vice-president and informant of the case, had filed a criminal writ petition before the single judge bench of Justice Virendra Kumar, who had on October 4 directed the government and the police to reply within four weeks on the slow pace of investigation.

Rajnath had also sought to know why the murder weapon - a carbine - had not been recovered even 19 months after the killing, his advocate Subhash Kumar Mishra said.

The petitioner's counsel told the court that the delay raised doubts on the fairness of the investigation.

The court had asked the government why the murder weapon had not been recovered yet, and why the alleged role of the Shahpur RJD MLA Rahul Tiwari alias Mantu Tiwari was not thoroughly probed.

Rahul, the son of senior RJD leader and former minister Shivanand Tiwari, had defeated Visheshwar in the 2015 Assembly election for the Shahpur seat.

The court imposed the fine on the government for failing to adhere to its earlier order and directed the government to file a reply within three weeks, failing which Rs 50,000 fine would be imposed.

Recently, Bhojpur police recovered a .303 bore rifle of from the house of one Banke Rai at Purusottampur. The rifle, which is a prohibited bore and only supplied to police and the Indian Army, was suspected to have been used in the daylight murder of Ojha on February 12, 2016 at Sonbarsha village in Bhojpur district, around 145km west of Patna.

Visheshwar's younger brother Bhuwar Ojha said: "The family has full confidence in the judiciary. We hope we will get justice."