Visitors barred from meeting Lalu Prasad; RJD to go to Jharkhand Guv on Monday

The RJD will seek an appointment with the Jharkhand Governor Monday to apprise her of the administration's decision of not allowing visitors to meet jailed party president Lalu Prasad, a day after his aides were not allowed to see him at a hospital here.

The Birsa Munda Central jail authorities on Saturday pasted a notice on the wall of the hospital ward, where Lalu Prasad is undergoing treatment, barring visitors from meeting Prasad, citing "law and order" concerns.

The notice signed by jail superintendent A K Chaudhary said visiting convicted Prasad would not be permitted on April 20.

"They are trying to demoralise our leader. Can they give an evidence of law and order problem during previous meetings by visitors? We will tell Governor Droupadi Murmu about it," the RJD's Jharkhand unit president Goutam Sagar Rana told a press conference here on Sunday.

As per the jail manual, three persons can meet the incarcerated Prasad every Saturday at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), where he is undergoing treatment for multiple ailments.

"The jail superintendent is helpless as it is being directed by the state and the central government. Not allowing Prasad to meet three persons on Saturday is violation of human rights," he said.

A senior police officer refused to take questions on the matter.

Prasad has been sentenced in four fodder scam cases by different special CBI courts in Ranchi and is in prison since December, 2017.

He is facing trial in a fifth fodder scam case in connection with alleged fraudulent withdrawal of money from Doranda Treasury in Ranchi in the early 1990s.