Rupam Pathak, the lady school principal who killed Bihar’s ruling BJP legislator Raj Kishore Kesri by a knife attack on Tuesday, has confessed her crime to police officials who interrogated her at the Katihar Medical College. Her father-in-law said she was a self-willed woman not maintaining a good relationship with the family and was often paranoid.
Purnea DIG Amit Kumar, who interrogated a badly injured Pathak along with some other officials for about three hours, said on Wednesday that she described her activities on the fateful morning leading to the murder of the Purnea MLA in the courtyard of his own house. “She described how she got ready in the morning and picked up the knife from her kitchen with which she killed the MLA while speaking with him in a crowd,” said Mr Kumar.
Pathak, a portly lady in her early forties and a post-graduate, had alleged in 2010 that her eventual victim and his personal secretary Vipin Rai had been raping and sexually exploiting her for three years since 2007. She had formally withdrawn the charges two months later but moved court against the police when they submitted a final report in September 2010 absolving Kesri and Mr Rai of any wrongdoing. Pathak was hospitalised after being badly beaten up by Kesri’s supporters and bodyguards immediately after she stabbed him.
“This murder seems to have been for emotional reasons. It does not seem like it was a murder for any gains. We are looking at all the angles,” said the DIG.
Her father-in-law, Krishnamohan Pathak, said he was shocked by her attack on the MLA. “She has been a very self-willed woman and never liked any guardian. I cannot say her relations with the family were good. She began living at the school, saying she would look after the hostel, despite our protests. She has been very paranoiac. We never knew when her moods would change,” he said.