Police team's visit to Lalu's ward triggers speculation of his shifting to another floor in RIMS

A visit by police officials to the ward of the RIMS, where RJD president Lalu Prasad has been staying after being convicted in fodder scam cases, has triggered speculation in the media as to whether Prasad will be shifted to another floor of the hospital on security grounds.

The police team had paid a visit to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief's ward in the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) on Monday.

"It was a routine visit," Deputy Superintendent of Police (Sadar) Deepak Pandey told PTI on Wednesday when asked whether Prasad would be shifted to any other floor of his paying ward on security grounds.

"No, it is nothing like that and we cannot openly discuss security matters," he said.

Prasad, who is serving prison terms following his conviction in the fodder scam cases, is undergoing treatment at the RIMS for various ailments.

His health condition was stable now, one of the attending doctors said.

A close associate of Prasad alleged that the police visit was part of the efforts by the state officials to put pressure on the RIMS authorities to shift the RJD supremo to some other floor where those, who came to visit the other occupants of the ward and on seeing Prasad, offered "namaskar" to him and briefly interacted with him, were prevented from doing so.

Sources in the RIMS said the RJD chief was staying on the first floor of the paying private ward. Speculation is that he may be shifted to the second or third floor of the building.

Prasad's associate, on the condition of anonymity, alleged that since the first floor had an open verandah where the leader sat during the day in the winter chill, the officials, on directions from the higher-ups, seemed interested in denying him the facility.

He further alleged that the sole objective of the district administration appeared to be to harass him on one pretext or the other.

He claimed that despite permission from the doctors, the security personnel posted at the ward were not allowing the entry of green vegetables or prawns, which the ailing RJD president needed on health ground.

The former Bihar chief minister is languishing in a Ranchi jail since December, 2017 after being convicted in the fodder scam cases.

The over-Rs 900-crore fodder scam relates to the fraudulent withdrawal of money from the treasury in the Animal Husbandry department in undivided Bihar in the 1990s, when the RJD was in power in the state and Prasad was the chief minister.