RJD leader shot dead; Lalu, Kushwaha express outrage

Samastipur (Bihar): An RJD leader was shot dead here early Thursday in Samastipur district, evoking condemnation from opposition leaders in the state including the party’s jailed national president Lalu Prasad.

Raghuvar Rai (50), state general secretary of the RJD and a former deputy chairman of the Zila Parishad, was gunned down at Kalyanpur while he was on morning walk, Superintendent of Police Harpreet Kaur said. She said motorcycle-borne assailants, whose identity and number were yet to be ascertained, fled the spot after firing at Rai.

The leader was taken to a hospital in the neighbouring Darbhanga district where he succumbed to injuries, Kaur said. Following the murder, the RJD supremo took to the micro-blogging site twitter and trained his guns at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, though he did not mention the latter by name.

Sharing a news report about Rai’s killing being the fifth incident of murder reported from the state in the past 24 hours, Prasad tweeted in Hindi: “He feels no shame, keeps saying there is rule of law. People are being killed like insects in Bihar and he goes on playing the same record”. Prasad is serving sentences in a number of fodder scam cases and lodged at a hospital in Ranchi for various ailments.

His official twitter handle is operated by people close to him. Prasad’s younger son Tejashwi Yadav, leader of the opposition in the Bihar assembly, tweeted: “Nitish Kumar ji, please rein in the goons who enjoy state patronage. What is the use of your keeping the Home portfolio. Criminals have been killing workers of RJD and RLSP but till date you have kept silent.” 

Rashtria Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha also came out with a tweet alleging that the state government had become “deaf, dumb and mute” and also used the Bihari slang “thethar” (callous) for the regime while expressing concern over the state of affairs.