(Top) Munna and Annu Shukla

Muzaffarpur, Dec. 2: During the Lalu-Rabri regime, there were several reports of dons-turned-politicians calling the shots from within the jail premises. The situation appears to have remained unchanged — at least in the case of Muzaffarpur where jail authorities have turned down the plea of shifting former MLA Vijay Kumar Shukla, alias Munna Shukla, to Bhagalpur central jail.

Shukla, 42, has been convicted in the murder of former minister Brij Bihari Prasad — who looked after science and technology in the Rabri Devi ministry and was himself arrested in connection with a examination scam. Shukla was not given a ticket by the JD(U) in the last Assembly polls from Lalganj in Vaishali district. Instead, his wife Annu Shukla got the ticket and won.

Shukla had been listed to be transferred from Khudiram Bose Central Jail, Muzaffarpur, to Central Jail, Bhagalpur, following adverse reports of his presence here. District magistrate Santosh Kumar Mall, acting on strong recommendations of senior superintendent of police Rajesh Kumar and jail superintendent Vishwanath Prasad, forwarded his report to inspector-general, prisons, Anand Kishore that Shukla, along with 14 hardened criminals, be shifted from the Muzaffarpur jail.

The reason cited for seeking Munna’s shift is that a large number of people come from Lalganj to meet him, triggering chaos outside the jail. The other reason was reportedly Munna’s alleged links with criminals of the area. Munna and the band of 14 were found to be hobnobbing with criminals outside the jail and were involved in abetting crimes such as extortion in Muzaffarpur, the largest commercial town in north Bihar.

An extortion racket thriving in the jail had been busted last month and three criminals were arrested.

The police then drew up a list of 15 hardened criminals who, they advised, should be shifted out of Muzaffarpur and taken to central jails in Bhagalpur and Buxar.

The move angered Munna’s wife Annu Shukla, the sitting JD(U) MLA from Lalganj. She went public decrying the police “high-handedness” in trying to shift her husband out of Muzaffarpur.

Jail superintendent Prasad said the government had deleted the name of Munna Shukla from the list of prisoners who have to be moved to prisons in Bhagalpur and Buxar. The 14 criminals have already been moved out for at least six months.

Despite repeated attempts, inspector-general Kishore could not be contacted for comment.

In 2000, when the elections threw up a hung Assembly, several criminal-turned-politicians such as Rajan Tiwari, Munna Shukla and Surajbhan got elected. They had initially supported Nitish Kumar in his first stint as chief minister when he failed to prove his majority in the House. The photographs of dons-turned-MLAs with Nitish haunted the chief minister for quite some time. Though political loyalties of several of these dons-turned-MLAs changed over the years, Munna Shukla has remained with Nitish.