Former I&B minister shot at in Bihar

Violence, anarchy and breakdown of law and order "" the seamy side of Bihar politics burst out in the open today. Former Union Minister Ravishankar Prasad was injured when an unidentified gunman shot at him at a BJP election meeting in Sasaram.

The crowd reacted angrily and turned the fury against the assailant. However, Prasad was not the target of the shooting""it was BJP member in the dissolved Assembly from Nokha Rameshwar Prasad Chaurasia. Prasad got the bullet in his arm, slumped to the dais and was air-lifted to Patna.

Meanwhile, in Patna traffic came to a standstill as hundreds of children of various schools staged a protest march from DAV school in Rajvanshi Nagar to the Patna High Court. Carrying placards that read "Why abduct children" and "We want Golu'" the children marched through Bailey Road to reach the high court, a day before its deadline to recover the child expires.

Senior Superintendent of Police K Krishnan had revealed yesterday that a criminal gang enjoying patronage of an Uttar Pradesh BJP legislator was in possession of the child.

While RJD chief Lalu Prasad said the police must have made the disclosure after ascertaining facts and accused NDA leaders of having been involved in abductions in the past, state BJP chief SK Modi said the MLA was being dragged into the controversy only to discredit the NDA ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections.

As accusations were hurled at each other by political parties and there was a question mark on Golu's fate and whether he was still alive. Prasad used the opportunity to pin the blame for all past kidnappings on the NDA.

"These people (NDA leaders) have been engaged in kidnappings, even of school children, for a long time to discredit the erstwhile Rabri Devi government. Now they stand exposed," Prasad told reporters at the Patna airport before going for electioneering.

Modi, however, charged that the name of the BJP MLA was being dragged into the controversy with an eye on the polls. 'The erstwhile RJD government had ordered raids on the premises of several NDA leaders in the wake of kidnapping of a school student Kislay just before the February assembly elections only to discredit the NDA. No case was registered against any of our leaders or workers,' he contended.

NDA's chief ministerial candidate Nitish Kumar has demanded an inquiry by an independent agency to get at the truth.

Patna SSP Kundan Krishnan had yesterday said five members of the gang originally involved in the kidnapping who were arrested had revealed that they had handed over Golu to a gangster Guddu Rai, who enjoyed patronage of a BJP MLA of UP. He had claimed that the boy was alive and kept somewhere in Uttar Pradesh-Bihar border.