Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party submitted a memorandum to Bihar Governor Ramnath Kovind on Saturday evening, demanding a criminal case against Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. The delegation of senior party leaders Sushil Kumar Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav and former state party chief Mangal Pandey alleged that Yadav had a telephonic conversation with jailed gangster Mohammad Shahabuddin. They also demanded that the state government move the Supreme Court to cancel Yadav’s bail in the fodder scam, reported PTI.

The allegations arose after Republic TV aired an audio clip of an alleged conversation between Yadav and Shahabuddin when the former Siwan MP was in jail. Shahabuddin is heard saying that the sporadic violence in Siwan during the Ram Navami festival was because of “inadequate” security. Following this, Yadav can purportedly be heard taking instructions from Shahabuddin on how the police should act in cases of violence in Siwan.

The BJP MP from Siwan, Om Prakash Yadav, said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should resign. “These media reports prove that the Bihar government has lost its spine and bowed before Lalu Prasad,” he told PTI. Raising a similar demand, state party president Nityanand Rai said the audio clip exposed the nexus between the government and criminals in Bihar.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad accused the RJD chief of “shamelessly” breaking the law, and urged Kumar to break his “eloquent silence”. Addressing a press conference, Prasad said, “Nitish Kumarji, a crime has been committed. Are you going to launch criminal proceedings against your ally Lalu Prasad?” With 81 MLAs, the RJD is the biggest party in the coalition government in Bihar.

Shahabuddin is currently accused in 45 cases, including in the murder of journalist Rajdev Ranjan. After nearly 11 years in jail, the former MP from Siwan was released on bail on September 10. He had been in prison since November 2005 in connection with the murder of two brothers from his village. He returned to prison though and is currently in Tihar Jail.

Senior RJD leader and former MP Jagdanand Singh said that Shahabuddin was a party member and that there was no crime in having a conversation with him. But, Janata Dal (united) spokesperson Upendra Prasad refused to comment on the matter.