Lalu son's photo with 'killer' sparks outrage

PATNA: A picture of one of the accused wanted in Siwan journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder case with RJD chief Lalu Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap went viral on Wednesday, prompting the opposition in Bihar to sharpen its attack on the ruling grand alliance, which is already facing flak after the release of former Lok Sabha MP Mohammad Shahabuddin from Bhagalpur jail.

The accused, Mohammad Kaif alias Bunty, is an associate of Shahabuddin and was seen in another set of pictures standing next to the murder convict when he was released from Bhagalpur jail on Saturday.

Kaif 's pictures with Tej Pratap, who is a minister in the Nitish government, went viral a day after Siwan SP Saurabh Sah told TOI that several locations of the absconder were raided after he was spotted with Shahabuddin on Saturday.

Tej Pratap, however, dismissed the controversy , say ing, “I have nothing to do with the photograph. Thousands of people come and meet me. It is all a conspiracy of BJP and RSS."

Attacking RJD for the picture, BJP member Sushil Modi asked if Tejashwi (Tej Pratap's younger brother and deputy CM) would intervene like UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and ask his father to expel Shahabuddin from the party .

In response, Tejashwi retweeted his elder brother's tweet titled “Doosre pe ungli uthane wale, khud ke gire ban mein jhaanken (Before pointing a finger at others, set your own house in order)."The tweet had photographs of PM Narendra Modi with a person who Tej Pratap claimed "runs a sex racket".

Meanwhile, in a related development, Rajdeo Ranjan's widow Asha met Sah on Wednesday and demanded that police interrogate Shahabuddin in the murder case.She said that she had told police a day after Ranjan's murder on May 13 that she suspected that the former RJD MP was behind the killing.