Rupam Pathak

Patna, Jan. 11: From a civil service aspirant to a part-time journalist and now an accused in a murder case. Life for Navlesh Pathak, 45, has taken many turns in a period of about 10 years.

Navlesh, the son of retired district and sessions judge Ramesh Pathak, now finds himself in the dock for his close relations with Rupam Pathak, the principal of a Purnea public school who stabbed to death BJP legislator Rajkishore Keshari at his ancestral house on January 4.

Navlesh has been charged under sections 120-B (conspiracy) and 109 (abetment to crime) of the IPC after his name was included in the FIR lodged by Keshari’s nephew Sudip Keshari.

The complaint says the BJP leader’s last words were, “Navlesh Pathak marwa diya (Navlesh Pathak got me killed).” Police investigations have revealed that Navlesh had made at least 131 calls on Rupam’s mobile between November 2010 and the day of the murder.

Rupam had filed a case of sexual assault against Rajkishore Keshari and his personal assistant Bipin Rai last year. The allegations were first reported in Navlesh’s magazine Quisling. Local sources say Navlesh even negotiated on behalf of Rupam with the BJP leader, but there was no way this could be confirmed.

Navlesh started his career as a journalist in Purnea in 1997 when he was appointed contributor to a national English daily. He was, however, dropped after six months. He looked around for jobs and finally shifted to Hyderabad where he reportedly worked in a private firm for a while.

After travelling from one place to another in search of a permanent job, Navlesh decided to settle down in Purnea, his hometown, in 2009. In January 2010, he published the first issue of Quisling. Why the journal was named after the former Norwegian army officer who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II thus making the name synonymous with traitor is not known, but local sources said it could be because of the controversial issues it dealt with.

A Purnea-based journalist said, “Navlesh brought out only five to six editions of Quisling since January 2010 and most of them were on controversial issues.” But soon the publication became irregular because of financial constraints.

It was during this period that Navlesh came in contact with Rupam Pathak. He got his only daughter admitted to Rupam’s school and later asked his wife Rama Pathak to join the institution as a teacher on a monthly remuneration of Rs 2,000. But a few months ago, Navlesh asked his wife to join another school.

On the last day of 2010, Navlesh shifted to his native village of Bhatott in Purnea but local sources said he remained in constant touch with Rupam. “He has to pay the price for his close relations with Rupam,” said a journalist associated with a Hindi daily.

After completing his graduation from Patna University, Navlesh, like many others, took a crack at the civil service examinations. He sat for the defence entrance test as well, but failed. In the meantime, he did his post-graduation from Tilka Manjhi University, Bhagalpur.

“I sat for every examination, right from the civil services to the defence, but success eluded me every time,” police quoted Navlesh as saying during his hours-long interrogation before being sent to jail last Friday.