The Shilpi-Gautam murder is the infamous case of death of two individuals, Shilpi Jain and Gautam Singh, which shook the

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

government of the time. The case was finally closed as double suicide, although many remain unconvinced with the investigation. Shilpi was the daughter of Ujjwal Kumar Jain, a clothes store (Kamla Stores) owner and Gautam was the son of a London based doctor, B.N Singh. He was associated with the youth wing of

Rashtriya Janata Dal The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: National People's Party) is an Indian political party, mainly based in the state of Bihar. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has traditionally been Other ...

. The two were believed to be in a relationship.

Discovery of bodies

On 3 July 1999 two bodies of a boy and a girl were discovered in a semi nude state inside a car in a parking near quarter number 12,

Frazer Road Frazer Road (officially ) is a mixed residential-cum-commercial neighbourhood in Patna. This is the road most frequently heard after coming out from the Patna Junction as it connects Patna Junction to Gandhi Maidan Marg - the two major hubs of ...

, Patna. This quarter belonged to

Sadhu Yadav Anirudh Prasad Yadav, better known as Sadhu Yadav (born 5 July 1967), is an Indian politician and founder of Garib Janta Dal (Secular). He has served in 14th Lok Sabha as MP of Gopalganj from 2004 to 2009 as Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candi ...

, the

brother-in-law A sibling-in-law is the spouse of one's sibling or the sibling of one’s spouse. More commonly, a sibling-in-law is referred to as a brother-in-law for a male sibling-in-law and a sister-in-law for a female sibling-in-law. Sibling-in-law al ...

Lalu Prasad Yadav Lalu Prasad (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician who served as the chief minister of Bihar from 1990 to 1997 with a brief interruption in 1995 and as the union minister for Railways from 2004 to 2009. He is the founder and president o ...

and a

Member Of Legislative Assembly A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected to sit in a legislative assembly. The term most commonly refers to members of the legislature of a federated state or an autonomous region, but is also used for several national ...

for the ruling party

RJD The Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD; translation: National People's Party) is an Indian political party, mainly based in the state of Bihar. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav. The party's support base has traditionally been Othe ...

.The bodies were identified as Shilpi and Gautam. Both of them were missing since 2 July 1999.

Police investigation

The police investigation and handling in this case came under serious questioning. Even before the police could secure the crime scene, the supporters of the MLA reached the scene and created a lot of ruckus. Even the vehicle was driven to the police station by a constable instead of being towed, which rendered getting any fingerprint information from the steering wheel impossible. Police initially declared this a case of suicide even before the

Viscera In a multicellular organism, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to a ...

report. Then later they reported possibility of poisoning. The body of Gautam was cremated in a hurry without taking permission from his family members. Another inconsistency found in the police report was that the garage was locked from inside and the key was missing, so the person who called police must have been aware of the bodies.

CBI investigation

Six days after the discovery of bodies, Shilpi's family came forward and claimed it was a murder and not suicide. There was also huge political uproar over the case due to involvement of political personalities. All this combined with the botched up investigation done by police till then, the state government was forced to hand over the case to

Central Bureau of Investigation The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the domestic crime investigating agency of India. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. Originally set up to investigate bribery and gover ...

. The CBI sent off the vaginal fluid of Shilpi for DNA testing in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

. The test report suggested that multiple people had raped Shilpi before her death. The CBI asked for the DNA sample of a MLA, who refused to provide the sample. It is believed that the MLA who refused was

. Four years later, CBI close the case. In its report submitted to the court, CBI declared it to be a case of suicide. Although the parents of Shilpi rejected the CBI report and still feel it to be a case of Murder and want a fresh investigation to be done. Recently Prashant Jain, the brother of Shilpi Jain was kidnapped from outside his home and later freed.

References

{{reflist Crime in Bihar Suicide in India History of Patna Incidents of violence against women People murdered in Bihar People murdered in India 1999 murders in India Violence against women in India