RJD MLA’s son stabs youth, held; Bihar CM faces ire

Bihar RJD MLA Virendra Sinha’s son Kunal Pratap allegedly stabbed a motorcyclist for not letting his Scorpio car overtake him in the state’s Aurangabad district on Friday night.

After his arrest around midnight, the police sent him to jail on Saturday but not before the crime triggered an outrage as it comes four months after a ruling party (JD-U) legislator’s son allegedly shot dead a student in Bihar’s Gaya district in a road rage incident.

The latest incident prompted Opposition parties to attack CM Nitish Kumar and his RJD-backed government with “jungle raaj” barbs for deteriorating law and order in Bihar.

The victim, Pintu Yadav, said he was on his motorbike when the MLA’s son and his men stopped and attacked him on Friday night. “Kunal wanted to kill me,” he said on Saturday after he was rushed to Patna for treatment.

The stabbing also comes at a time when the Bihar government is facing criticism for the bail granted to Shahabuddin, don-turned-politician and a senior leader of Lalu Prasad’s RJD.

“Kunal was also angry because I refused to obey his orders. He wanted me to work for him but I had told him that I am a worker of Swaraj Party,” the victim said.

Mr Sinha, MLA from Obra in Aurangabad, claimed that his son was innocent and accused the injured of trying to overtake Kunal’s car with an intention to kill him. He said, “He injured himself to frame my son and malign my image,” he said.

A CBI team is also in Bihar to probe the murder of a journalist in the state’s Siwan district in May, and may question Shahabuddin in that connection.

The latest incident may also deepen the differences between the JD(U) and the RJD fighting over Bihar’s liquor prohibition and Shahabuddin’s release from jail.