Abhijeet Mukherjee outside the Birsa Munda jail
RJD chief Lalu Prasad, lodged in Ranchi's Birsa Munda jail since he was convicted in the multi-crore fodder scam, had a surprise visitor on Sunday.
President Pranab Mukherjee's son and Congress MP Abhijeet Mukherjee spent over half an hour with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief in jail. The visit was described as "courtesy call."
The RJD is a close ally of the Congress; it does not participate in the ruling coalition at the centre, but lends external supports with four Lok Sabha MPs.
Mr Prasad, found guilty of facilitating the embezzlement of 37 crores of government money for fictitious medicines and fodder for cattle in the 1990s while he was Chief Minister of Bihar, was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday. He stands disqualified as an MP due to a recent Supreme Court ruling that says convicted law-makers stand disqualified immediately.
The UPA government had attempted to pass an ordinance reversing the Supreme Court ruling, but withdrew it in the face of scathing public censure from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
The opposition had said the ordinance was introduced in a rush to protect Mr Prasad.