JD(U) alleges jail manual violation in allowing Lalu to write to Raghuvansh

With Bihar's ruling JD(U) alleging violation of the jail manual by allowing RJD chief Lalu Prasad send a letter to Raghuvansh Prasad Singh asking him not to quit the party, the Jharkhand prison department on Friday said that the letter had "personal contents" and not political and no rules were bent in the matter.

Bihar Information and Public Relations department minister and JD(U) leader Neeraj Kumar had alleged violation of Bihar-Jharkhand jail manual in the case.

He pointed to provision of the manual that said "letters shall only refer to private matters and no reference shall be made to jail administration, or discipline, to other prisoners or to politics" in support of his charge. A handwritten letter of Prasad making an emotional appeal to his over three decades old RJD companion Singh was sent by the jail administration to AIIMS Delhi where the former union minister is admitted following post-Covid complications.

Jharkhand Inspector General of Prison Virendra Bhusan told PTI Bhasa in Ranchi that "the letter sent through jail superintendent had personal contents and it even did not use the word resignation". He said there was no political references in the letter. Bhusan said he enquired with the superintendent of Hotwar jail Hamid Ansari about the matter on which he said "Lalu's letter appeared to him personal and that's why he accepted it and on his request sent it to AIIMS through email." Bhusan further said Prasad is provided facilities entitled to a class one prisoner and no extra amenities have been given to him.

After receiving a complaint about people meeting Prasad in RIMS freely, Bhusan said he had written to the Ranchi district administration following which a magistrate has been deputed there. "No complaint has come after this," the IG Prison said. said. The RJD supremo who is convicted in four cases of multi-crore rupees fodder scam case in Bihar is lodged in jail in Ranchi.

On health ground he was shifted to RIMS. Recently in the wake of detection of positive cases to his attendants, Prasad was moved to Director's bungalow from the private ward of the state-run hospital. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi had recently alleged that more than 200 ticket aspirants had submitted their biodata to the jailed RJD chief for Bihar elections. He had accused Hemant Soren government of helping Prasad since his RJD was part of the coalition government in Jharkhand.