Bihar govt suspends Lalu's biographer

Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's biographer Harivansh Narayan has been suspended by the Bihar government.

Official sources in the personnel and administrative reforms department said the government had initiated departmental proceedings against Narayan, a joint secretary in the department of animal and fish resources.

"A formal notification of his suspension has been issued," officials said on Thursday.

Narayan has been charged with flouting quota norms and other government rules in allocating 12 PDS shops in 1996 and 17 in 1997 when Lalu was Bihar chief minister.

He was also charged with giving maternity benefits on fictitious names like 11 to those who had more than two children and one over 75 years of age.

During the last assembly elections in the state in 2005, the Election Commission had shunted him out from poll duty as a returning officer after some political parties reportedly objected to his posting.

Narayan wrote the railway minister's biography titled Mitti ke Gaurav in the 1990s. A portion of the biography was included in a Class 8 textbook by the Bihar Secondary School Board during the RJD rule.

The book described Lalu Prasad as a mass leader and a anmol ratan (priceless jewel) who has been the 'prime source of inspiration for the socially-backward and under-privileged classes of Bihar.'