When Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav assured stern action against those guilty in the Rupaspur attack case — in which Dobhi Nagar Panchayat executive officer Arvind Kumar Singh was grievously injured on Tuesday night — it brought Nagendra Rai, the nephew of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, back under spotlight.

The two main accused in the case — Tanuj Yadav and Nayan Yadav — are sons of Nagendra, 54. And they are, so far, absconding. The police has only managed to arrest one accused, Ranjan Kumar Singh.

Although Lalu has publicly maintained distance from his nephew — who has been facing five cases of extortion and criminal intimidation — Nagendra continues to evade strong punitive action. There are allegations that the sons of Nagendra — Lalu’s grand-nephews — are escaping police action in this case because of the “protection” they enjoy due to their family ties.

A graduate and a part-time Bhojpuri singer, Nagendra was booked by the Danapur (Patna) police on March 13, 2023 for demanding Rs 3 crore extortion from a Patna builder, for allowing him to construct a multi-storeyed business complex along Danapur-Khagaul Road. The 13-katha land, valued at over Rs 22 crore, is owned by one Subhash Rai, who has got into an agreement with Patna builder Nitin Kumar to raise a building over the land. Nagendra, who had earlier also allegedly indulged in extortion against Subhash Rai in 2017, has been chargesheeted in the case, but is out on bail.

The son of Lalu’s elder brother Mahavir, Nagendra had settled in Patna years ago after constructing a house on a plot in Gola Road in Danapur’s Rupaspur. Claiming to have studied at University of Delhi in his Facebook account, Nagendra had launched his career as a part-time Bhojpuri and Hindi singer a decade ago. He managed to practice and perform with at least two senior IPS officers, who were also singers. But by the late 1990s, he took to petty crimes and started using his relationship with Lalu to threaten people and commit extortion, mainly over disputed land, for allowing contractors or land owners to allow construction.

This was when the Lalu family began to distance themselves from Nagendra, not allowing him to attend marriage functions of the daughters and sons of Lalu and Rabri Devi. The last time someone from Lalu’s family visited Nagendra was in March 2021, when Tejashwi had visited the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) to pay last respects to his uncle, Mahavir, who died after a prolonged illness.

The first time the BJP had attacked Lalu for “trying to shield” Nagendra was in 2003, when the then director of Buddha Institute of Dental Sciences, Raghvendra Narayan Rai, had alleged in a case lodged at Shastri Nagar police station of Patna that over two dozen armed people led by Nagendra had barged into his house and allegedly threatened to kill him and his family members.

In 2004, Nagendra faced another case of criminal intimidation against former chairman of Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) Subhash Sharma.

He faced tough police action in December 2005, after Nitish Kumar had taken over as the Bihar CM. He was arrested by Patna Police in connection with a 2004 case in which he had allegedly opened fire to extort money from a Raja Bazar, Shastri Nagar, resident.

A senior Patna police officer said: “Nagendra Rai follows a standard modus operandi. He creates land disputes or focuses on disputed land in areas of his influence, mainly Danapur, Shastri Nagar and Gardanibagh, to extort money from land owners. He also forges land deeds to usurp land as he unsuccessfully tried to do in the case of Subhash Rai in 2017… One of his alleged conduits, Kedar Yadav, was killed in August 2017 in Danapur.”

Meanwhile, the Danapur court has issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against both Tanuj Yadav and Nayan Yadav for assaulting government employee Arvind Kumar Singh, said the SHO of Rupaspur police station Ran Vijay Kumar.