Yadav: Fresh blow

New Delhi, May 7: The Supreme Court today issued notices to the home secretary of Bihar and the inspector-general (prisons), directing them to explain how Pappu Yadav is freely roaming around and campaigning in the hypersensitive Madhepura constituency of the state despite an order remanding him in judicial custody.

A division bench of Justices . Santosh Hegde and B.P. Singh took suo motu cognisance of media reports and wondered how a person in judicial custody could move around freely in the constituency. The same bench had earlier remanded Pappu Yadav in judicial custody in connection with the Ajit Sarkar murder case.

The Election Commission has declared Madhepura a hypersensitive constituency because of the bitter tussle between its candidates Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav and Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United). Pappu Yadav has allegedly been campaigning for Laloo Prasad.

The court asked the two officials to explain as to how many days the accused was kept in jail, the number of days in hospital and the number of days he was allowed to “roam around”.

The court had, on a petition filed by Sarkar’s brother, cancelled the bail granted to Pappu Yadav by Patna High Court and asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to take him into custody. The agency arrested the accused and took him to Patna to face trial.

Recent media reports, however, showed Pappu Yadav, a member of Parliament from Purnea in the dissolved Lok Sabha, “roaming freely” in Madhepura.