Patna, Feb. 3: Controversial RJD legislator from Belaganj Surendra Prasad Yadav played hide-and-seek with police today and remained out of the reach of the cops despite intensive search operations.

A couple of police officers were deputed outside the court following rumours that Yadav would surrender. But he never turned up. Several raids on his possible hideouts and home also went in vain. An aide of the MLA said Yadav was in a city hotel when the raids were conducted.

A special police team comprising Mohammad Imtiyaz and Sudhir Kumar Singh, both deputy superintendents of police, reached the civil court around 11am anticipating that the legislator would surrender. “Some policemen in plain clothes were also deployed on the court campus to arrest the MLA,” a police officer said.

The members of the special police team later conducted a raid on the MLA’s house at Chiraiyatand under Rampur police station but Yadav was not present there. Another team conducted raids on different hideouts of Yadav but returned empty-handed.

Sources said the police picked up Yadav’s son to exert pressure on the MLA to surrender. Gaya superintendent of police (city) Daljeet Singh said raids were on to arrest the MLA. “But the police have not been able to arrest him so far,” he said.

While the cops were conducting the raids, a group of Yadav’s supporters took out a protest march under the banner of RJD Yuva Morcha from the his residence to the collectorate in protest against the police action. “The MLA has been framed in a false case at the behest of the ruling party leaders,” a supporter of Yadav said.