Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Monday rejected a request made by Rashtriya Janata Dal leaders to relax the visiting hours to meet their party chief Lalu Prasad Yadav at Birsa Munda Central jail in Ranchi, The Telegraph reported.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation court on December 23 had convicted former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and 14 others in one of the six fodder scam cases. Yadav has been lodged at the Ranchi jail since. On January 3, the court will decide on the quantum of punishment for the convicts.

The jail manual allows meetings with inmates only between 8 am and noon every day, except on Sundays. The prisoners are allowed to meet only three visitors every week.

On Monday, state RJD President Annapurna Devi and MLA Bhola Yadav met Lalu Prasad Yadav in the jail. Later, the two leaders visited the Jharkhand chief minister’s residence to request special provisions for the RJD chief owing to his public and political stature, according to The Telegraph.

“The chief minister was unwilling and did not give any positive response to our request,” Devi told the newspaper. “He told us the jail manual cannot be relaxed for any prisoner.”

Meanwhile, the jail administration is maintaining a log of people who have requested to meet Lalu Prasad Yadav, reported The Times of India. The former Bihar chief minister will later go through the register to decide who he will meet during the week.

“He is not a common prisoner and special arrangements should be made for his meeting with party workers,” MLA Bhola Yadav told The Times of India.