Moments after a CBI court sentenced RJD president Lalu Prasad to five years in prison in the fifth case of fodder scandal, Bihar opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav today accused the country’s investigating agencies of acting with bias and wondered how his father was targeted shortly after he expressed his wish to return to active politics. Prasad now will have to move the upper court to seek bail and legal experts say he will have to wait to walk out of jail.

“We are wondering the alacrity with which the CBI acted soon after Laluji got active in politics,” Tejashwi alleged. The RJD president had recently attended the party’s national executive in Patna held earlier this month and just before being convicted in the fifth case, he had even held a meeting with party leaders in Jharkhand.

It is also worth mentioning here that Prasad had even expressed his willingness to join active politics once again and counter Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the parliament. “I am keen to return to active politics. Will contest Lok Sabha polls and return to the parliament. There are legal restrictions on me to contest polls but once these hurdles are removed, I will fight the elections,” was how Prasad had told the media on 9 February. At present, Prasad remains disqualified from contesting elections for his conviction and subsequent sentencing in the fodder scam cases.

Tejashwi, however, sees a bigger conspiracy behind the fodder cases registered against his father. “My father is being frequently victimized in the same case as if this was the only case which surfaced in the post-Independent India. If the investigating agencies were so alert, then how did Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi Mehul Choksi flee the country? What were the CBI, ED, IT, and NIA doing then?” he asked. Even in Bihar, as many as 80 scandals, including the multi-billion Srijan scam and Muzaffarpur sex scandal, have taken place but no action was taken against the accused persons so far, he alleged.

Budding RJD star also alleged his father was being frequently targeted since he had refused to shake hands with the “communal forces”. “Kya Laluji darnewale hain (Do you think Lalu can be intimidated)?” he asked and added the entire nation was watching how the RJD chief was being tortured. “Ek hi aadmi ko bar-bar pratadit kiya jar aha hai (Only one person is being repeatedly tortured),” he alleged.

He asserted the majority of prisoners currently lodged in jails are poor people and “Laluji is the leader of the poor”. He said the RJD would not sit idle until the BJP and its Bihar ally Nitish Kumar were “politically eliminated”.