Patna, April 11: A drama unfolded at Siwan district jail when the jail superintendent turned down Muzaffarpur police's request to allow two undertrials - Laddan Mian and Sonu Kumar Gupta - to stay in the prison on Monday.

Laddan and Sonu - accused in Siwan journalist Rajdev Ranjan's murder case - were brought to Siwan court on Monday for production in a case lodged under the Arms Act. The Siwan court had earlier issued a production warrant against the accused.

Sources said Laddan was shifted from Siwan after the jail administration received complaints about prison manual provisions being frequently violated. From Siwan he was transferred to Gaya central jail and subsequently taken to Muzaffarpur.

A Muzaffarpur police team, assigned to escort the two undertrials, reached Siwan jail around 5.30pm and requested jail superintendent Vibhu Bhardwaj to allow Laddan and Sonu to stay there. "Since there was no specific order from any court, I spoke to the chief judicial magistrate of Siwan," jail superintendent Bhardwaj said on Tuesday. "On his verbal instruction, I asked the police to leave for Muzaffarpur."

But the escort team was defiant and pressurised Bhardwaj to allow the accused to stay in the district jail.

This led to a verbal duel between the two sides. Finally the escort team left for Muzaffarpur with the gangsters, who face charges of murder and extortion. "It was wrong to travel with dreaded gangsters at night," said a member of the escort team.

Laddan and Sonu had to spend the night in police lock-up at Muzaffarpur town police station. On Tuesday, the two were produced before the Muzaffarpur court, which remanded them in judicial custody at Shaheed Khudiram Bose Memorial Central Jail.

Muzaffarpur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Vivek Kumar said so far no disciplinary action had been initiated against members of the escort team. "I will ascertain what exactly happened in Siwan yesterday," he saidover phone on Tuesday. "Laddan, the prime suspect in Siwan journalist Rajdev Ranjan's murder, was produced in Siwan court around noon. But he reached Siwan jail around 5.30pm. Where was he for over five hours," a senior prison department official asked.

Laddan was earlier considered close to incarcerated don-turned politician Mohammad Shahabuddin, presently lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail.

The Rajdev Ranjan murder case is being probed by the CBI (central bureau of investigation) and the trial is in progress at a special CBI court in Muzaffarpur. While Laddan surrendered in the Siwan court in June, Sonu and his four aides were arrested from Siwan almost two weeks after the murder of Rajdev, Siwan bureau chief of Hindi daily Hindustan on May 13, 2016.