Express News Service
PATNA: After staying away from his home and family for four months and a half, jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav reached his Patna home on a three-day parole on Thursday evening to attend his elder son Tej Pratap Yadav’s wedding ceremony slated for May 12.
The 69-year-old former Bihar chief minister, who has been sentenced to jail terms for 27 years and a half after conviction in four cases of the fodder scam, flew from Ranchi to Patna by an evening flight of IndiGo Airline. Doctors at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi, where he was admitted for treatment of a host of illnesses, said his health condition had improved and that he could travel. Yadav was lodged in Birsa Munda Central Jail in Ranchi on December 23 last.
Hundreds of RJD supporters greeted the wheel-chair bound Yadav as he emerged out of Jaya Prakash Narayan International (JPNI) Airport. His eldest daughter and Rajya Sabha member Misa Bharti and his sons – Bihar Opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav and former health minister Tej Pratap Yadav – were among a galaxy of RJD leaders present at the airport to receive him.
Although Yadav had requested for a five-day parole, the Jharkhand government granted him three days, causing sadness among his family members and supporters. Jharkhand’s IGP (jails) Harsh Mangla said Yadav’s parole was from May 11 to 13. Accordingly, Yadav would take a flight back to Ranchi on May 14, said party sources.
His elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, 28, is getting married to Aishwaya Rai, the elder daughter of former Bihar minister and RJD leader Chandrika Rai, on May 12. She is the granddaughter of former Bihar chief minister Daroga Prasad Rai. The couple’s engagement ceremony was held at a Patna hotel on April 18. The RJD chief had missed the occasion as he was under treatment at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, from where he was shifted back to RIMS on May 1.
Sources in Jharkhand’s jail department said the RJD chief has been strictly advised “not to meet and speak to party leaders and media persons and not to engage in any political activity” during the parole. Besides, his movements would be captured by video cameras throughout the parole period, they added.
“We are very happy that our leader has finally been allowed to attend his son’s wedding. But we are disappointed at the shabby treatment he has been accorded all along… from being forcibly sent back from AIIMS to cutting his parole to just three days,” said RJD national spokesman and RS member Manoj Jha.
