Tej Pratap Yadav demands Lalu Prasad's immediate release from jail

RJD president Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav on Thursday demanded that his father, who is undergoing treatment in hospital, be immediately released from jail.

Yadav, an RJD MLA, was talking to reporters on the assembly premises, a day after Prasad was shifted to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi in an air ambulance from Ranchi where he was serving sentence in a fodder scam case.

He was undergoing treatment at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in the Jharkhand capital and his health condition had deteriorated.

"I have seen my father being repeatedly put in jail, having been implicated in a case he had sought to crack," 35-year-old Yadav said.

He alleged that government officials, who were "primarily responsible" for fraudulent withdrawal of money to the tune of about Rs 1,000 crore from various districts of undivided Bihar, were "roaming freely" while his father was being made to suffer despite old age and multiple ailments.

Training his guns at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Prasad's arch rival, the RJD leader alleged, "He (Kumar) is an accused in a murder case and would have faced life imprisonment but for an alliance with the BJP."

Notably, the murder case, relating to an incident of poll violence, was lodged in the 1990s, when Kumar was an MP from the now abolished constituency of Barh.

Criminal proceedings against Kumar were, however, set aside by the Patna High Court three years ago.