Surendra Prasad Yadav at Gaya court on Friday. Picture Suman

Gaya, Feb. 4: In hiding for four days, RJD legislator from Belaganj Surendra Prasad Yadav today woke up to the “plight of patients” and surrendered before a local court.

Yadav’s surrender also brought the strike called by junior doctors across the state to an end.

The MLA walked into the court of Gaya chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Rajesh Narayan Sevak Pandey around 11am. With him was his counsel S.D.N. Singh.

Yadav, clad in a white kurta-pyjama and a blue sweater, was sent to judicial custody for 14 days. The magistrate had rejected the legislator’s bail petition yesterday.

Yadav said he surrendered to save the lives of patients who were not getting medical aid owing to the strike called by junior doctors after the MLA’s bodyguards opened fire on interns of Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital (ANMMCH) on Sunday.

The doctors had set a deadline for today for the arrest of the MLA.

When pointed out that none of the five interns accused in the case had been arrested, Yadav said: “Nearly 50 patients died due to the strike. The government has virtually bowed before the doctors.”

Senior superintendent of police Amit Lodha said the MLA surrendered because of police pressure. “Now it would be the turn of junior doctors who have been accused under non-bailable sections,” he said. Five junior doctors — Suprakash, Shahabuddin, Vineet, Amit Ansari and Antu Kumar — have been named in the four FIRs lodged with the Magadh Medical police station.

Attendants of one Meena Devi had filed an FIR against junior doctors under the SC-ST Atrocity Act for misbehaving with them. The RJD MLA has also lodged FIR against a few doctors for misbehaviour. The police have lodged an FIR against the doctors for torching a police SUV. Another FIR has been lodged in connection with causing injury to the bodyguard of the Sadar sub-divisional officer.

Yadav, a six-term MLA, is no stranger to controversies. He has been sent to judicial custody twice before — once for illegal confinement and then for ferrying firearms during elections — but has never been convicted.