The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation as to where and which prison Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav should be shifted to stop his activities violating all conceived rules under the prisons manual.
Taking serious note of the activities of Yadav, as reported by the CBI, a bench comprising Justice N Santosh Hegde and Justice S B Sinha asked the agency to reply by January 3 whether the incarcerated member of Parliament could be shifted out of Beur Jail in Patna to any other prison in Bihar or outside the state.
The CBI has also been asked whether Yadav's trial in the Ajit Sarkar murder case could be conducted through video conferencing if he is shifted out of Beur Jail.
The court also directed shifting of the case pertaining to Yadav's activities pending before the Patna high court to itself and ordered that the notices issued by the HC to cellular phone companies should be treated as notices issued by the apex court.
During a surprise visit to Beur Jail, the Inspector General (Prisons), Bihar was surprised to find several had found unauthorised visitors come to meet Yadav. When he objected, he was manhandled and locked up in a room for some time.
The court said it had been monitoring Yadav's conduct for some time and was of the opinion that he questions everybody's authority, defies all conceivable rules under the Jail Manual and talks to VVIPs from within the prison using his cell phone.
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"We have put him in jail, not a five-star hotel," the court observed when Yadav's counsel R K Jain gave an undertaking that in future there will be no complaint about client's behaviour in jail.
Jain said that if he did anything illegal, the court's hands were long enough to catch him.
"Our hands were long enough to cancel his bail twice, but not long enough to keep him as an undertrial in the jail," the bench replied.
Appearing for the CBI, Additional Solicitor General Amarendra Saran sought to divert the attention of the court saying the agency had been able to arrest the accused who 'pulled the trigger' on Purnea MLA Ajit Sarkar.
But the bench refused to lose focus on the conduct of Yadav in jail, saying Sarkar's murder was a separate matter.
"If we look back, after his bail was cancelled, he was kept in a hospital and given VVIP facilities on the false pretext that there was no bed available in the prison ward," the bench said and added that now a 'sob story' was being circulated that he was being denied medical treatment because of the courts.
The court noted with seriousness the CBI report stating that the Inspector General of Prisons, during a surprise check of Beur Jail, was locked up in a room for some time by Yadav's supporters when he objected to their unauthorised presence.
The court posted the matter for further hearing on January 4.
