RANCHI: Controversy has arisen over Saturday evening's raid on the paying ward of a hospital where jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad is undergoing treatment and where he regularly meets visitors, mostly politicians.The former Bihar chief minister who was shifted to the paying ward of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims) here from Ranchi Central Jail a few months ago on medical grounds. Apart from his family, he has been meeting leaders of different political parties in his hospital ward on Saturdays (designated for such visits).On Saturday evening, police and jail authorities went to Rims and carried out a surprise inspection of Lalu's room. This followed after prison authorities received complaints about violation of jail rules in the paying ward of the hospital. Hours before, Tariq Anawar, who switched over to Congress from NCP recently, and D P Tripathi, a senior leader from NCP, had visited Lalu in the hospital.A police official said until now, the guards on duty would frisk visitors and allowed them to get into the paying ward even when they were carrying their cell phones.The inspecting team, which included jail superintendent Ashok Chaudhary and DSP (Sadar) Deepak Pandey, pulled up a police inspector posted in the paying ward for allowing visitors to carry their cell phones in violation of prison rules. They directed him and other police personnel to allow entry only to authorised visitors.Pandey told TOI, "The inspection was a routine exercise. We did not find anything objectionable in Lalu's room."RJD hit out at the state's BJP government by describing the raid as 'political vendetta'.

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