Madhepura MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav on Sunday said he would give Rs 10 lakh to anyone who lynches a corrupt official or politician.

" Jo aise officer ko peet peet maar dega, usko hum 10 lakh denge (I will give Rs 10 lakh to persons who lynch such officials)," he said. He also offered Rs 25,000 to anyone who carries out a sting operation on "corrupt people".

Stressing that corruption is the root of all problems, he he told The Telegraph: "In Lok Sabha also, I recently demanded that corrupt officials and politicians be hanged."

The controversial MP, who was expelled from the RJD, evaded questions on who would decide who is corrupt. "People know against whom corruption cases are pending and who are taking money," he said, sticking to his call to Dalits to shoot politicians responsible for scholar Rohith Vemula's suicide.

What the MP said is an offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and amounts to waging war against the system, said senior advocate Y.V. Giri.

"But former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju posted a similar statement. It was not considered an offence," he added.

Patna High Court senior advocate Rajiv Verma said the MP's statement is a cognisable offence under Section 153(A) and (B) of IPC, which relate to hate speech and promoting enmity among groups.

Police do not seem interested in taking action against the MP, as their political masters fear it may give him political mileage.

JDU MLA Gopal Mandal recently publicly threatened to cut the tongues of BJP leaders causing disturbance in the Assembly and Council.

After the RJD expelled him on May 7, 2015, for "anti-party activities", Pappu Yadav floated his own outfit, the Jan Adhikar Party (Democratic), which was a part of the third front - that also included the SP and the NCP - in last year's Assembly polls. During the state elections, there were strong rumours that Pappu had a tacit understanding with the BJP and that his party was trying to split the Grand Alliance vote.

The party's performance was disastrous; all his candidates lost their deposits, even in his stronghold Madhepura and the Supaul parliamentary seat that his wife and Congress MP Ranjita Ranjan.

Even before the elections, the MP led an agitation against doctors accusing them of fleecing patients. The state unit of Indian Medical Association (IMA) charged the MP of inciting violence against the medical fraternity.

Political circles brushed aside Pappu's outrageous Sunday statement.

"He is desperately trying to regain his Robin Hood image, which he gained in Purnea in the 1990s during which he struck terror in the hearts of government officials and doctors," said a former Congress MLA of Purnea district, preferring anonymity.

In the 1990s, as lawlessness spread in Bihar, criminals-turned-politicians built a Robin Hood image - curbing the fees of doctors, putting a ban on increase of bus fares and even holding durbars for instant justice. That was the time of people like Mohammad Shahabuddin, Munna Shukla, Prabhunath Singh, Anant Singh, Pappu Yadav and others, who built up their fiefdom in the state.

After 2005, these fiefdoms mostly vanished.

Additional reporting by Sanjay K. Mishra