RANCHI /PATNA: Former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday accused RJD chief Lalu Prasad of trying to lure NDA legislators through phone calls from Ranchi, where he is serving his jail terms in the fodder scam cases.
The former deputy CM said on Twitter that Lalu was making calls from a phone number “to NDA MLAs & promising ministerial berths. When I telephoned, Lalu directly picked up. I said don’t do these dirty tricks from jail, you will not succeed.” The phone number that he mentioned in the tweet (TOI is not revealing the number) belongs to Lalu’s caretaker Irfan Ansari. The number was switched off when TOI tried to reach it 30 minutes after the tweet. Irfan has been allowed access to the former Bihar CM at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims) campus, where the latter is serving his jail term.
Soon after Modi’s tweet, BJP’s Jharkhand president Deepak Prakash also tweeted: “Why has the honourable (Jharkhand) CM Hemant Soren kept his eyes shut on this matter?”
Under the prison manual, Lalu is not allowed to use cellphone for communication and is supposed to meet visitors only once a week. Officials of Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Central Jail were not available for comments. JD(U) MLC in Bihar Neeraj Kumar demanded that Lalu be shifted to Hotwar jail to prevent any misdoings.
RJD functionaries, however, rubbished SuMo’s allegations. “SuMo suffers from Lalu-phobia. Rather than diverting people’s attention from real issues, including unemployment and Covid management, NDA leaders are busy making baseless allegations,” RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari said.