‘Will send Rabri to jail for ill-treating my daughter’

The high-voltage family drama in Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi’s family has spilled onto the streets with their daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai lodging an FIR against the former Chief Minister after charging her with physical assault.

Aishwarya’s father, Chandrika Rai, who is a senior RJD MLA and was a Cabinet Minister in Nitish Government till July 2017 (during the Grand Alliance regime), has vowed to send Rabri to jail for ruining his daughter’s life.

“Rabri Devi was Chief Minister of Bihar for more than seven years. Often she speaks of atrocities against women. But look at her how she ill-treated my daughter and threw her out of the house on Sunday evening,” said Chandrika, the father-in-law of Tej Pratap Yadav, the estranged husband of Aishwarya, here on Monday.

Tej Pratap, Lalu-Rabri’s elder son, who married Aishwarya in May 2018, had filed a divorce petition in the court in November 2018 and the hearing is on. However, on Sunday, a weeping Aishwarya came out of Rabri’s official residence and claimed that she had been assaulted by the former Chief Minister and thrown out of the house. Though the charge was vehemently denied by Rabri family loyalist and RJD MLA Shakti Singh Yadav, who was then present there, an FIR was eventually lodged against Rabri and Tej Pratap at Mahila police station in Patna.

“Around 11.30 pm on Sunday, Aishwarya came along with her father Chandrika and mother Purnima Rai at Rabri’s residence (where she used to stay) and took her belongings,” said a source at Rabri’s house.

“Now I will expose Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi. We will fight them legally as well as politically,” said Chandrika, the former Transport Minister of Bihar.

Aishwarya too was spewing venom. “My grand-father Daroga Rai was the Chief Minister of Bihar in the 70s. He promoted Lalu Prasad. Now, Lalu’s family is ill-treating the bahu (daughter-in-law) who is fighting a divorce case filed by Tej Pratap,” said Aishwarya.