Guess who received Bihar’s former Chief Minister lalu Prasad when he forwarded to Birsa Munda jail in Ranchi. Not the jail staff but two of the RJD supremo’s close aides who were present in the prison as inmates and their purpose was only to serve their malik. lakshman Mahto and Madan Yadav, who live with lalu all the time in Patna, Delhi, Ranchi and wherever he would go and do everything for him from cooking food to massaging.
Mahto and Yadav, both belonging to Ranchi in Jharkhand State, created a scene with the help of their friend Sumit Yadav, who accused the two of attacking and fighting with him and snatching Rs 10,000, they ensured that FIR was lodged against them with Doranda police station. But the FIR was not lodged there as the Doranda SHO Abid Khan got suspicious and refused to file the complaint.
After failing in their attempt, the trio approached lower Bazar police station where the police believed and registered their complaint. A lawyer was also put ready to secure the copy of FIR and police report and took both of them to the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) for their surrender on December 23, 2017. lalu reached the jail around 4.30 pm in the evening but his personal attendants landed there two hours earlier in the afternoon.
This entire fabricated drama was enacted only to put both the lalu’s personal attendants readily available in jail to see what their boss needed behind the bars: freshly cooked food, medicines, khaini or body massage. The duo have been charged under sections 341, 323, 504 and 379 of IPC.
It is not the first time that at least one of his close aides was also present after entering the jail as an accused not to serve jail term but to serve his master. In 2013 too when lalu was sentenced in fodder scam Madan had managed that he was lodged in the Hotwar jail and he continued serving lalu till his last day in the prison.
Perhaps this tradition was started by a person in late nineties during lalu’s first incarceration. That person, who was then closest confident of lalu, managed to enter Beur jail in Patna to serve his master. However, now he has strained relationship with RJD chief and does not pay court to him after being humiliated by lalu’s elder son.
On earlier jail terms this proved smooth affair and nobody ever raised objection on such practices because of the favourable Governments in Bihar and Jharkhand but this time it could be very difficult since the officials of the Ranchi jail are strictly following and implementing jail manual obviously at the instruction of the BJP Government there.
After this incident was exposed by a vernacular newspaper, the anti-RJD parties came down heavily on lalu and called him a feudal lord. JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar, “lalu can go to any extent to fulfill his desires and torture party workers.
Two poor workers were sent to jail for no reason only to serve lalu.” He demanded that the Jharkhand Government take cognizance of the event and take action against officials to helped lalu getting a couple of his workers at his beck and call in jail.