Rupam Pathak. Telegraph picture

Patna, Feb. 1: The sensational killing of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Purnea Sadar Rajkishore Keshari seems to have been relegated into the cold chamber.

Bihar police are twiddling their thumbs because the CBI is likely to probe the case. And the premier investigating agency is sitting with its fingers crossed, as the Union home ministry is yet to issue any notification.

Four weeks have passed since Keshari’s murder at his ancestral house in Purnea, but the CBI is yet to be officially handed over the investigation. “We are yet to receive any official notification from the home ministry regarding handing over the Keshari murder case,” CBI spokesman R.K. Gaur told The Telegraph from New Delhi on Tuesday.

Gaur said the investigating agency would set up a team to conduct preliminary inquiry into the case after the official notification is issued. “Till date, the CBI has not received any information. At a time when official notification is yet to be issued, we cannot make any comment,” the CBI spokesman said.

On January 8, the Bihar government had recommended a CBI probe into the case, ostensibly under pressure from the opposition parties and the woman organisations, which came out on the streets demanding a CBI probe. They showed their solidarity with the alleged killer. Rupam’s mother Kumud Mishra filed a petition in Patna High Court on January 17, seeking its intervention in handing over the probe to the CBI.

When contacted, Purnea superintendent of police Nayyar Hasnain Khan said the district police officials are waiting for the CBI team to take over the case investigation. “We have no official information about the CBI’s arrival to Purnea,” he said.

“We have kept all evidence ready for CBI,” he said, adding that two out of the three accused in the FIR have already been arrested and are in jail,” he said, before adding that efforts were on to nab the vehicle driver.

The arrest of the driver of the car that dropped Rupam near Keshari’s house can help establish whether journalist Navlesh Pathak was in the car or not. “The driver is absconding after the incident,” a police officer posted at Khajanchihaat police station said.

Sources in the state police headquarters said the Bihar government issued a notification about the handing over of the case to the CBI on January 7.