Health condition of RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav has deteriorated: RIMS doctor

Yadav is currently lodged in a paying ward of the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi.

The health condition of RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is serving jail term in fodder scam cases, has deteriorated due to a festering boil on his right leg, the doctor attending him at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi said on Sunday. Yadav is currently lodged in a paying ward of the RIMS.

The sugar level and blood pressure of the RJD chief, who is a diabetic, have shot up in the past two to three days due to the boil, Dr Umesh Prasad of the RIMS, who attends Prasad, told news agency PTI.

The former Bihar chief minister's dose of insulin has been increased to bring down the sudden increase in sugar level, he said. The doctor said Yadav's creatinine level has also increased to 1.85 from 1.5 and so has the white blood cell count to 12,000, the normal range of which is between 4,000 and 8,000.

"It will take some time for the infectious boil to heal," the doctor, who is monitoring the RJD chief's health condition round-the-clock, said.

Due to the boil, the RJD chief is experiencing difficulty in standing up and going to the washroom, sources close Yadav said. When asked if the RJD chief needs to be shifted to any other hospital, Umesh Prasad said proper care of the patient was being taken at the RIMS.

Convicted in the Rs 900-crore fodder scam, the RJD chief surrendered before a special CBI court in late August, following the Jharkhand High Court's refusal to extend his bail on medical grounds. He was admitted to the RIMS and later shifted to its paying ward after he complained that he could not sleep properly due to barking dogs and mosquito menace.

The fodder scam is related to fraudulent withdrawal of government funds from the treasuries of various districts of undivided Bihar in the 1990s when RJD was in power and Yadav the chief minister then. Yadav was in Ranchi jail since December last year in fodder scam cases.

The Jharkhand High Court had provided him bail first for specialised treatment in hospitals in various states and again in July to attend the wedding of his elder son Tej Pratap Yadav in Patna.

Tej Pratap, however, has filed a divorce suit against his wife Aishwarya Rai within less than six months of tying the knot. The petition is scheduled to come up for hearing on November 29. The development has caused stress to Prasad, taking a toll on his ailing condition, sources said.