Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, listing around three dozen serious offences that occurred in the last few days in Bihar and appealed to him to condemn the spiralling crime graph in the state.

Pointing out that the list was not exhaustive, Tejashwi, who is also the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, enumerated the killing of an eight-year-old in Sheikhpura, the murder of a youth in Kaimur district and the fatal shooting of an employee of Hajipur civil court.

He also included the incidents of thrashing a youth to death in Madhepura, killing of a 55-year-old man in Araria, attack on a journalist in Bettiah in West Champaran district, looting of ₹8 lakh from a CSP (customer service point) operator in Sitamarhi and the death of three women in Nawada in mysterious circumstances.

Listing a total of 33 crimes, mainly including murders in different districts, Tejashwi pointed out that they occurred in the last two to three days.

“We expect you to speak a couple of words to censure the geometrical progression of crime in Bihar. The justice-loving and intelligent people of the state are of the opinion that you get the wild dreams of ‘jungle raj’ (lawlessness) only during the elections,” Tejashwi wrote in his letter to Modi.

Crime has got out of control of the enforcement agencies and dozens of heinous incidents have been coming to light every day across the state. There is a general perception that the perpetrators have no fear of the police or other enforcement agencies and act with impunity.

However, with Tejashwi raising the issue, the ruling NDA partners sprang forth to rebuff him.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU) spokesperson and MLC Neeraj Kumar led the charge.

“Tejashwi Yadav is preaching on crime. We are ready to talk about the action taken on each and every crime. Nobody can escape from the law, but you should ask your parents – Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi – and tell the people that 5,243 incidents of kidnapping for ransom had happened during their rule in Bihar. You should give details of the action taken in those incidents and then preach on crime,” Neeraj said.

The BJP leaders also charged Tejashwi over the open letter and asked him to remember the atrocities and crimes that occurred in Bihar during the RJD rule.

“He (Tejashwi) has lost his mind. He should remember his father Lalu Prasad’s rule when goondagardi (hooliganism) happened from the chief minister’s house. Ransom was collected at the chief minister’s house and Lalu Prasad used to play the role of the mediator. We have seen those days. Lalu Prasad is the symbol of lawlessness in Bihar,” deputy chief minister and BJP state president Samrat Choudhary said.