Patna: A fresh controversy has erupted over an inscription bearing the name of former MLA Ranvir Yadav on a plaque at Mansi in Khagaria district on Tuesday.
Ranvir, former MLA from Khagaria, was convicted and awarded life imprisonment in a murder case in January last year. And yet he was invited to the function organised under Mukhyamanti Khetra Vikas Yojana as chief guest.
His wife Poonam Devi Yadav, who is the current Khagaria MLA, and other dignitaries attended.
"How could a convicted person like Ranvir be made chief guest at an official function? Is it not a mockery of 'sushasan' (good governance)," asked a senior RJD leader, who recalled Ranvir's close connections in the ruling alliance. Poonam won from Khagaria Assembly seat on a JDU ticket.
Ranvir wielded hefty political influence in his home district of Khagaria.
Many in the state recalled how he had protected chief minister Nitish Kumar from agitating contract teachers in Khagaria in September 2012.
Ranvir had snatched a policeman's automatic weapon and fired in the air to prevent the agitating people from attacking the chief minister. Nitish's government, in alliance with the BJP like now, suspended 11 policemen for negligence but took no action against Ranvir.
Ranvir earlier happened to be RJD chief Lalu Prasad's blue-eyed boy.
"It was because of his close proximity to Lalu that Ranvir's second wife, Krishna Kumari Yadav, was fielded as RJD candidate from Khagaria Lok Sabha seat in 2014," said a JDU leader.
A senior IPS officer, who had earlier served as Munger SP in the early 1990s, said Ranvir was convicted for the first time for his alleged involvement in the infamous Taufir Diara massacre case of November 1985 in which nine persons were killed.
On January 3, he was sentenced to undergo life imprisonment for shooting his cousin brother Sunil Kumar Yadav dead about 28 years ago.
A close confidant of Ranvir said, "What is wrong in it? He has appealed in high court against the lower court's verdict. He is still a popular leader of Khagaria."
