Lalu did no wrong, but was punished: Rabri Devi

Patna, Mar 3 (PTI) Former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi on Monday alleged before the state legislative council that her husband Lalu Prasad, the RJD president, was punished despite having done no wrong.

The 66-year-old homemaker turned politician, who is the leader of the opposition in the Upper House, also complained of notices coming every other day from ED, CBI and Income Tax department.

Making a statement inside the House, she turned towards fellow MLC Neeraj Kumar, who is a spokesperson of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), and said, "You love to take potshots at Lalu ji, calling him by the number he was allotted while in prison. Lalu ji was punished without having done any wrong." Notably, a charge sheet in the fodder scam had caused the RJD supremo to give up the chief minister's post in 1997 and hand over the reins to his wife.

In 2013, Prasad was convicted in one of the fodder scam cases and has since been pronounced guilty in several others. Legal woes continue to plague him and his family members who are on the ED radar in land for hotels and land for jobs scams, both pertaining to his tenure as the railway minister.

Rabri Devi also taunted the JD(U) leader with the remark: "You people seem to live in the dread of ED, CBI and Income Tax department. Look at us. We are served with notices by these agencies every second day. But we continue to live and work in Bihar, without fear".

The former CM expressed annoyance over the NDA's relentless targeting of her party's rule in Bihar, marked allegedly by lawlessness and corruption.

"The ruling side seems to have got into a habit of talking about the 15 years, which the people of Bihar no longer remember. And when talking of those days, why do you hide the fact that the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was hardly giving any funds to Bihar. Still, we tried to build roads and make school education available to poor children," she said. PTI NAC NN

Source: PTI