Bihar Top Cop Removed Under Pressure from Lalu Prasad: BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi

Patna: A senior BJP leader today attributed the transfer of Bihar police chief Abhyanand to alleged pressure on the Janata Dal - United government by Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad, whose party recently voted for the Jitan Ram Manjhi government and helped it win the by-poll to two Rajya Sabha seats.

"The day there was an understanding between Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar, the former started interfering in the transfer and posting of police and administrative officers in Bihar," BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said in a statement.

Mr Modi alleged that police officials of a special social category were handpicked and appointed at important posts as part of this.

Abhyanand was removed from the post yesterday and P K Thakur made the new state police chief.

Five days earlier, senior police officers like Inspector General (IG) of CID Vinay Kumar, IG Operations Amit Kumar and Pravin Vasistha, IG of Economic Offence Unit, were shunted to lesser posts, he said.

The senior BJP leader said that this was demoralising for the police force.

"The bad condition of law and order in Bihar is due to the weak and unstable political leadership in the state," he added.