Patna: Independent Purnea MP Rajesh Ranjan (Pappu Yadav) was arrested late on Friday evening in connection with a case dating back nearly 35 years and spent the night on a stretcher at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) before being shifted to Patna Medical College and Hospital on Saturday morning, according to people close to him.
Yadav was picked up from his residence in Patna’s Mandiri area after a court reportedly revoked his bail in a 1995 case. Police teams from multiple stations, along with officers in plain clothes, descended on the area late at night, sealing off the locality as the arrest was carried out.
Soon after, Yadav’s personal secretary levelled serious allegations against both the police and the state’s healthcare system. In a post on social media, he claimed that the MP was taken to IGIMS for medical attention following his arrest but was made to remain on a stretcher throughout the night without being allotted a bed. The episode, he said, reflected the “dilapidated” condition of public healthcare in Bihar.
Yadav, too, took to social media with a defiant message, describing his arrest as politically motivated. He said he was being targeted for raising his voice in the case of a NEET aspirant who died under suspicious circumstances in Patna. Questioning the role of constitutional authorities, he alleged that the police action was intended to intimidate him. “Send me to jail or hang me,” he wrote, adding that he would not stop speaking out against what he called corruption and injustice.
The police, however, said the arrest was made strictly in accordance with a court warrant linked to the old case. Senior officers maintained that due process had been followed and rejected claims of any political vendetta.
The incident has once again brought into sharp focus the uneasy intersection of politics, policing and criminal law in Bihar, while also sparking questions about the treatment of detainees and the capacity of state-run hospitals to provide timely care.
