'They have been unfair to me'

"I want death. Hang me," Rupam Pathak said haltingly as she lapsed in and out of consciousness. Pathak stabbed Raj Kishore Keshri, BJP MLA from Purnia, to death today. Aditya Nath Jha reports.

"I want death. Hang me," Rupam Pathak said haltingly as she lapsed in and out of consciousness.

HT Image

Pathak stabbed Raj Kishore Keshri, BJP MLA from Purnia, to death on Tuesday.

Pathak, a schoolteacher, stabbed him at his residence in Purnia when he was meeting people from his constituency. She stabbed the MLA in the neck when she reached near him. She also stabbed Keshri in his stomach and heart.

Even after being told that Keshri was dead, she raged on: "He cannot die. He is a sinner. They have been unfair to me."

Along with select newspersons, HT visited the ICU when she came round.

She said, "I do not have adequate proof to nail them for what they have done to me. It is unfair. But I have no hope now."

Doctors attending to her are not sure if she can survive after being brutally beaten up by the mob. Parts of her body have turned blue and were bleeding.

Fluent in English, Pathak is every inch a schoolteacher. She dabbled in politics briefly and "did know how to command her way", those who know her say.

Her estranged husband lives with her daughter in Shillong. She is in Purnia with her son.

"She has a temper and would once in a while raise her voice. But suicidal she is not," said a neighbour.

"If anything, her presence and manner of talk could shock and awe people," recalled another.

"She even used to beat her father-in-law and brother-in-law in public," said Deepak Kumar, who lives near her house.

"The woman can be rude at times," claim other locals.

Rajhans Public School, the school she had launched, had started in 2005 and has 800 students, studying till Class 8.

One thing stands out.

She did bring charges of sexual exploitation against her alleged tormentor Raj Kishore Keshri and later withdrew them, ostensibly under political pressure.

There has been no police investigation into the complaint.