The Vishram Patil murder case gained national attention in India when the widow of the murder victim accused Pratibha Patil, the presidential nominee of the United Progressive Alliance, of shielding her brother, G. N. Patil, in relation to it. Murder G. N. Patil was nominated by the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee to be president of the District Congress Committee of Jalgaon in 2004. In 2005, an election by secret ballot was held for the position. He contested the election but lost to his opponent, V. G. Patil, by 13 votes. V. G. Patil was a professor of English in a Jalgaon college that was affiliated to the North Maharashtra University. After his election, he instituted an enquiry into misappropriation of funds collected for felicitation of Pratibha Patil and for tsunami relief. On 21 September 2005, he was murdered near his house in broad daylight. The local police arrested two alleged assailants, Raju Mali and Raju Sonawane, but were then instructed by officials in Mumbai to transfer the case to the CID. In a letter to the police, Patil's widow, Rajani Patil, accused Ulhas Patil, a former Indian National Congress Member of Parliament from Jalagaon, and G. N. Patil as conspirators. High court order and CBI inquiry In February 2007 the Aurangabad bench of Mumbai High Court acted on a petition from Rajani Patil, directing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the probe from the CID. The judge stated in his ruling that: A CBI team visited Jalgaon on 4 April 2007. Three days later, Raju Mali died in mysterious circumstances while in police custody. On June 23, 2007 the district and sessions court of Jalgaon allowed the CBI to file the supplementary charge-sheet in the murder case against G. N. Patil. Murder case in media The Hindi news channel AAJ TAK in October 2006 telecast a 20-minute investigative report on this murder case in its weekly programme ‘Hatyaara Kaun?’ (who is murderer). The report claimed that both G. N. Patil and Ulhas Patil had made numerous calls from their mobiles, before as well as on the day of murder, and that in September 2006, the two alleged assailants — Mali and Sonawane — went on an indefinite fast inside the Jalgaon district jail. Mali said, “We have been simply made scape goats in the case, whereas the real culprits are untouched.” Allegation of shielding by Pratibha Patil