Ahead of Bihar elections, Lalu Prasad Yadav campaigns for party leader jailed in extortion case: A reminder of his long record of backing criminals

With each passing day, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is making it clear that its agenda for the coming Bihar state assembly election is to bring back the wretched “Jungle Raj” era of the 1990s. After using songs glorifying guns, kidnappings and ‘Yadav’ supremacy, and re-mainstreaming the genocidal ‘Bhura Baal Saaf Karo’ slogan, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav is campaigning for his party’s jailed leader Ritlal Rai alias Ritlal Yadav.

On 3^rd November 2025, Lalu Yadav held a roadshow in the Danapur constituency for his party MLA candidate, Ritlal Yadav, who is currently lodged in Bhagalpur jail. Starting from Digha and ending in Khagaul, the roadshow covered 15 kilometres. Lalu Yadav was accompanied by his daughter Misa Bharti and Ritlal Yadav’s daughter.

Notably, Ritlal Yadav is accused of demanding Rs 50 lakh and threatening a builder named Kumar Gaurav. An FIR was registered against Ritlal Yadav at the Khagaul Police Station. On 17^th April 2025, Ritlal surrendered before the police and was sent to Beur Jail in Patna. Later, he was moved to Bhagalpur’s special central jail.

Ritlal Yadav, whom Lalu Yadav wants to be voted by the people of Danapur to serve them, also has a case registered against him for allegedly killing BJP leader Satyanarayan Sinha in the Khagaul area during one of RJD’s rallies in 2005. The RJD candidate is booked in over 40 criminal cases, with charges including murder, extortion, rioting and criminal intimidation.

RJD leader and former deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, also campaigned for Ritlal Yadav separately.

Many of the locals of Danapur say that they have been victims of Ritlal Yadav’s network and fear over what would happen if he wins the election. Some say that since Ritlal became the MLA, crime and snatching have increased.

Despite his criminal background and bad image, Ritlal Yadav enjoys great influence in the RJD and such is Lalu Yadav’s political compulsion to make a proper balance of caste dynamics since Danapur has a significant Yadav population, mollycoddling criminal strongmen and winnability that he has no qualms in not only giving ticket to a person with 40 criminal cases against him but also do roadshows for him with family.

Mohammad Shahabuddin then, Ritlal Yadav now: RJD’s playbook of backing vote-multiplier criminals

This, however, is not surprising given Lalu Yadav has built much of his political empire on the foundation that blends caste and crime. In fact, the higher the criminal records the better the prospect of getting ticket from the RJD.

Who can forget Mohammad Shahabuddin, the ‘Bahubali’ mafia from the Siwan constituency, who had over 40 criminal cases, including murder and kidnapping, against him. His crimes and terror did not deter Lalu Yadav’s steadfast support from the 1990s through the 2000s. Mohammad Shahabuddin was not only tolerated as a ‘Bahubali’ but the RJD also used him as their vote multiplier, who delivered the loyalty of his supporters, mobilised Muslim votes for Lalu’s party in exchange for impunity during the infamous ‘Jungle Raj’ when Lalu Yadav was the Chief Minister of Bihar.

Shahabuddin was a former member of the National Executive Committee of the Janata Dal and the Rashtriya Janata Dal. He was disqualified from contesting elections following his conviction for the kidnapping and disappearance of Chote Lal Gupta, an activist of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation, for which he was serving a life sentence. He was also accused of killing 15 other Communist Party activists, including the former student leader Chandrashekhar Prasad.

RJD leader Mohammad Shahabuddin ran parallel government with impunity since he had the blessing of Lalu Yadav. He was resolving family and land conflicts through khap panchayats, setting the costs for medical consultations and mediating marital disagreements.

Shahabuddin kidnapped Girish and Satish, the two sons of Chandrakeshwar Prasad, also known as Chanda Babu, for refusing to pay extortion money and for refusing to hand over their land to Shahabuddin. They were then taken to Shahabuddin’s mansion in Pratappur, his village. The brutal orgy that unfolded there on August 16, 2004, shook the entire nation. The two brothers were doused with acid until they died in agony.

Chanda Babu’s third son, Rajiv Roshan, was a witness in this case, but he was also murdered on his way to court. An FIR was filed based on the complaint of Kalavati, the mother of the three sons. However, it took five years for Shahabuddin to be named as an accused in this case. Eventually, Shahabuddin and the other accused were sentenced to life imprisonment. The case went through the local court and the High Court and then reached the Supreme Court, where, within minutes, then-CJI Ranjan Gogoi dismissed Shahabuddin’s petition and upheld the verdict.

Back 2005, Shahabuddin’s home in Pratappur village was raided by the police, and the authorities recovered AK-47s as well as other military hardware that could only be obtained by the army, such as night-vision goggles and laser-guided guns. Shahabuddin’s connection with Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, also emerged as several of the weapons had the marks of Pakistani ordnance companies. The police also accused him of having links with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Pakistan-backed Kashmiri Islamic terrorists.

However, Shahabuddin was not the only ‘Bahubali’ the RJD backed. Mohammad Taslimuddin also ran his fiefdom with impunity in the Lalu Raj. Taslimuddin also served as a union minister both under HD Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh’s governments. Mohammad Taslimuddin, however, terrorised the local authorities, ostensibly taking up issues of the oppressed, until they finally attached his land in Araria.

Taslimuddin had over sixteen cases of rape, dacoity, arson, and robbery filed against him. At least sixteen cases of rape, dacoity, arson, and robbery were submitted against him. An eyewitness disclosed that the MP and two associates brought a young Santhali girl home, drank wine and “then did the wrong things with the girl all night” in one of the unlawful detention files filed under Indian Penal Code 342. He was booked on charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy (IPC 419, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-b), rape and dacoity.

Rabri Devi, who once succeeded her husband Lalu Yadav as Bihar’s Chief Minister, backed her party’s rape-accused MLA Rajballah Yadav. In  2018, a special court in Patna pronounced Rajballabh Yadav and five others guilty of luring and raping a 15-year-old girl in February 2016. The politician was convicted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The victim was forced to watch porn videos and raped. However, displaying peak shamelessness and support for even rapists, Rabri Devi defended Rajballah Yadav while campaigning for his wife, who was contesting from the Nawada Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 general election. She claimed, “The way Raj Ballabh ji has been convicted and he has been set up by those who wanted to spoil his name, thus Vibha Devi (Raj Ballabh’s wife) is the candidate, and we have to help her win. We have to make her win.”

He surrendered before the police, and after a brief hearing held in the Nalanda court, he was released on bond. RJD expelled the legislator after a major uproar to save itself from embarrassment; however, he immediately arrived at Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Patna home after bail to seek his counsel. Rajballabh Yadav never ceased to enjoy Lalu family’s support despite his criminal activities and conviction in a rape case.

Rajballabh Yadav was not the only rape accused individual the Lalu family backed. In fact, Rabri Devi’s brother Sadhu Yadav was also accused of involvement in the Shilpi-Gautam murder case. The Shilpi-Gautam murder case shook the Bihar government of the time. The case was finally closed as a double suicide, although many remain unconvinced with the investigation.

The 23-year-old Shilpi Jain and her alleged boyfriend Gautam Singh went missing on 2^nd July 1999, and the next day their dead bodies were found in a semi-nude state inside a car in a parking near quarter number 12, Frazer Road, Patna. This quarter belonged to RJD leader Sadhu Yadav. The police investigation and handling of this case came under serious questioning. Even before the police could secure the crime scene, the supporters of the MLA reached the scene and created a ruckus.  The CBI asked for the DNA sample of an MLA, who refused to provide the sample. It is suspected that the politician was Sadhu Yadav.

Back in 1994, a Dalit Hindu girl who was sleeping with her mother in the residence under the Triveniganj police station area was visited by Yogendra Narayan Sardar. He abducted her in his car and gangraped her along with other accused.

The discussion around Lalu Yadav’s Jungle Raj and his constant backing of rapists and criminals is incomplete without mentioning the Champa Biswas rape case. One of Lalu Yadav’s close aides and son of Hemlat Yadav, the then chairperson of the Social Welfare Department, where IAS BB Biswas was also posted, Mrityunjay Kumar Yadav and his friends were accused by an IAS officer of raping his 30-year-old wife, Champa Biswas.  It was also alleged that the accused RJD leader also raped her mother, her sister-in-law, two maids and a niece. Champa was subjected to sexual assault multiple times.

Another of Lalu Yadav’s close aides convicted of rape was Yogendra Narayan Sardar, who was an MLA from the Janata Dal. Sardar’s conviction happened in 2020 in a 25-year-old Supaul gangrape case. A district court convicted former Janata Dal MLA Yogendra Narayan Sardar, his son Uma Sardar, Shambhu Singh and Bhupendra Yadav, also known as Bhupen Yadav of violating Sections 376 (rape), 366 (kidnapping), 458 (home trespass), and 324 (voluntary inflicting pain) of the India Penal Code and sentenced them to life in jail. While the lower court convicted Mrityunjay and his mother Hemlata, the High Court acquitted them as the witnesses on Champa’s side backtracked from their statements.

The relationship between criminals and the RJD has only grown stronger and extended to family as in the 2025 Bihar elections, Lalu Yadav’s heir-apparent, Tejashwi Yadav has fielded Osama Shahab, the son of Mohammad Shahabuddin from the Raghunathpur constituency.

Taking his criminal father’s legacy forward, Osama Shahab is accused of involvement in criminal activities. Osama was released from prison only last year, in 2024. The first case was registered regarding 42 kattha land in Chhapiya Buzurg, Hussainganj police station area. Subsequently, an FIR was filed against Osama in Motihari for firing at his brother-in-law over a land dispute. Meanwhile, in 2023, Osama was detained by traffic police in Kota, Rajasthan.

Then, the Hussainganj police arrived in Kota, arrested Osama, and brought him back. He was produced in court in the firing and land dispute cases filed against him. The court sent Osama to the divisional jail. A few days later, Osama was granted bail in the Hussainganj case. However, he remained in jail in the Motihari FIR. His bail plea in this case was rejected in the Motihari Civil Court, after which he was granted bail by the Patna High Court. Osama was finally released from jail in 2024 and is now contesting the election from Raghunathpur on RJD’s ticket.

Recently, a supporter of Osama Shahab, while speaking to OpIndi, said that if the boy who allegedly burnt an ‘I Love Muhammad’ poster was found, Osama Shahab would burn him alive. RJD leaders jumped in to defend Shahab and called him a ‘people’s leader’.

However, RJD and Lalu Yadav’s embrace and endorsement of criminals are not outliers but the norm. Not to forget, most of the RJD candidates in the 2025 Bihar elections carry pending criminal cases.

It is evident that the RJD wants to bring their Jungle Raj of the 1990s back in Bihar. Casteism, glorification of violence and kidnappings, to giving tickets to jailed and accused criminals, RJD has played all its Jungle Raj era cards for the coming elections. However, it is not shocking that Lalu Yadav, who himself was convicted by the court in the Fodder Scam and other corruption cases, is backing criminals.

During 15 -year RJD rule in 1990s and early 2000s, law enforcement collapsed, crimes became rampant, economy decayed, kidnappings for ransom became a thriving industry, mass murders, caste clashes became the new normal. Apparently, by supporting criminals, Lalu Yadav is telling the people of Bihar that his party wants to bring Jungle Raj era back in the state. It remains to be seen what choice the voters make in the coming elections.