BJP wants criminal case against Lalu following 'expose'

The BJP in Bihar demanded filing of a criminal case against RJD president Lalu Prasad on Sunday over his purported telephonic conversation with jailed gangster Mohammad Shahabuddin. Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi also demanded that the state government approach the Supreme Court for the cancellation of bail of Prasad, presently out on a conditional bail in a fodder scam case.

A BJP delegation, comprising Sushil Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav and former state party chief Mangal Pandey, met Governor Ramnath Kovind in the evening and submitted a memorandum in this regard.

A news channel today played the purported telephonic conversation between Lalu and Shahabuddin, a four-time Lok Sabha MP and senior office bearer of the RJD.

Shahabuddin is heard telling Lalu, "SP khatam hai (the SP is a gone case)" and complaining that due to "inadequate" security arrangement there was violence at a few places in Siwan during the Ram Navami festival. The RJD chief is then heard asking his aide to connect him to the Siwan SP.

Meanwhile, the Siwan BJP MP, Om Prakash Yadav, demanded Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's resignation. "These media reports prove that the Bihar government has lost its spine and bowed before Lalu Prasad," he said. Om Prakash Yadav had contested the 2004 Lok Sabha election against Shahabuddin. Agencies