'Strange, ironic situation' says Jharkhand BJP as Lalu Prasad Yadav stays in hospital bungalow, new director in paid guest house

Former Bihar Chief Minister and convicted leader Lalu Prasad Yadav continues to stay in the director's bungalow of the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) even as the new director of the institute has been put up in a guest house -- a situation that the Jharkhand unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has termed "ironic".

"It’s an irony that the director is a paying guest and the prisoner is enjoying a good time in his bungalow," BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said, according to a report by The Hindustan Times.

Shahdeo, according to the report, claimed that the state guest house charges Rs 800 per day and asked why the government should spend public money on housing Yadav, you has been convicted on corruption charges in multiple fodder scam cases.

Calling the situation "strange" apart from being ironic, the BJP leader accused Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren of meting out special treatment to Yadav.

Echoing his colleague's sentiment, BJP state president Deepak Prakash said that Yadav was shifted to the bungalow in August after there was a spurt of COVID-19 cases, and RIMS was a COVID-approved hospital.

"Now the virus infection is on the decline and the prisoner should be moved out of the director’s bungalow to the jail," Prakash said, according to the report.

The Inspector General in-charge of Jharkhand prisons told the newspaper that there was currently no plan to shift Yadav. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo's doctor, Umesh Prasad, said that he has over 16 diseases and requires regular monitoring.