Yogendra Sao

Ranchi/Hazaribagh, Oct. 7: Disgraced Congress MLA and former agriculture minister Yogendra Sao will have to cut short his cottage comfort at state-run RIMS and commute to Hazaribagh court tomorrow, well in time before his three-day transit remand expires in the afternoon.

Currently in judicial custody after his arrest from East Delhi on October 4 on charges of forming and running extortion gangs, Sao got admitted to RIMS after he reached Ranchi on October 5 night, complaining of earache, headache, diabetes and anxiety. But, doctors at RIMS have pronounced him fit enough for a team of CID (Jharkhand), which is investigating the case, to escort him to Hazaribagh court tomorrow.

The Barkagaon MLA, who stepped down as minister on September 12, was on the run since September 16. His luck ran out on October 4 with his arrest in the light of a non-bailable warrant issued by a Hazaribagh local court in a criminal case 48/2014 lodged at Giddi thana.

Then, for a time yesterday, it seemed that Sao would find refuge in a long sick leave at RIMS, a hallowed tradition among Jharkhand’s bigwigs.

Now, the only comfort that Sao can reasonably hope to expect tomorrow is a smooth one-hour-15-minute ride on the widened NH-33 stretch between Ranchi and Hazaribagh.

CID ADG S.N. Pradhan told The Telegraph that they were sending Sao to the Hazaribagh court tomorrow morning.

“Yes, he will be physically produced in court tomorrow in all likelihood,” Pradhan said.

On why Sao was sent to RIMS directly after being brought to Ranchi on a plane from Delhi on October 5, Pradhan said: “The Delhi court, which issued his transit remand, in its order mentioned he must be produced for medical exam. In his court affidavit, Sao had spoken of multiple ailments.”

Cottage No. 14, where Sao is lodged at RIMS under medical supervision of Dr Umesh Prasad, was completely out of bounds for the media, with both district and CID jawans guarding the area.

A CID officer said their investigations on Sao would involve the human trafficking angle as well.

In Hazaribagh today, judicial magistrate Sunil Kumar directed the state CID to produce Sao in court, to which the investigative agency sleuths informed the court that the MLA and former minister was fit to travel.

Sao’s lawyer Kishori Mohan Prasad was busy with his own preparations. “Tomorrow, we will withdraw his bail petition. After the arrest, the petition has no use. We will file a new bail petition once the CID takes Sao on remand,” Prasad told The Telegraph.

At Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan Central Jail in Hazaribagh, officials have decided to lodge Sao at Anda cell, a high-security zone of the prison with 12 rooms and a godown.

Anda cell came in news twice, once in 2001 when 13 terrorists of Lashkar-e-Toiba were lodged for a few months, and again in June 2014, when senior BJP leader and former Union minister Yashwant Sinha was arrested and lodged there.

Sao will stay at Anda cell No. 7, which played host to Sinha as well.

Sao’s son Sumit, spotted moving alone on court campus today, said his father was falsely implicated. “My father has been framed and we will fight till his innocence is proved,” he said.

“My mother Nirmala Devi will sit outside the house of chief minister Hemant Soren on an indefinite dharna from October 13. Congress workers at Barkagaon, my father’s constituency, Keredari and Patratu have started their agitation to protest against the arrest. We want Hazaribagh SP Manoj Kaushik’s transfer and an impartial probe.”

Hunt for Panna Lal

A source at state police headquarters at Dhurwa in Ranchi said on Tuesday that a team from Khunti police was likely to head for Delhi on Wednesday to hunt for alleged trafficking kingpin Panna Lal Mahto, from whose residence-cum-placement agency in Shakarpur former minister Sao was arrested on October 4.

Khunti SP Anis Gupta said: “Yes, a team is scheduled to leave for Delhi but I can’t disclose when and how in the interests of the success of the raid.”