Jitan Ram Manjhi Jitan Ram Manjhi

Members of Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal's student wing and an outfit called Lohia Vichar Manch cleaned a statue of socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia with water after former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi garlanded it on Sunday evening in Bihar's Supaul district.

Four persons have been booked by the police for the incident, one has been arrested. Police said a search is on for remaining three after an FIR was registered against them.

Manjhi was on his way to Saharsa in connection with a political programme when he stopped at Lohia Chowk in Supaul to garland the statue of the freedom fighter. After he left the place, members of the student wing of the RJD and Lohia Vichar Manch arrived at the spot and washed the statue with water, removed the garland put by Manjhi and placed another garland of their own, the district chief of the two organisations said.

Dukhi Lal Yadav of the Lohia Vichar Manch said in a release that Manjhi is a man hungry for power and hence has no moral rights to garland the statue of Lohia. Manjhi was recently expelled from the Janata Dal-United.

A similar controversy had erupted in Madhubani district late last year when Manjhi, who hails from a Mahadalit family and who was Chief Minister at that time, alleged that some people had washed a temple after his visit and offered prayers there.