The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday raided several premises of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Kiran Devi and her husband and former legislator Arun Yadav in a case of alleged money laundering.

Both are considered close to RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his family. They dabble in sand trade and own palatial bungalows and property spread across the Bhojpur and Patna districts.

Kiran represents the Sandesh constituency in Bhojpur district. Arun Yadav represented the seat from 2015 to 2020. They were not present at their palatial residence at Agiaon when ED officials descended early in the morning.

Another team of the agency searched their two flats at Danapur on the outskirts of Patna after prising their locks open.

The raids come just a fortnight after chief minister Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government won the floor test amid a threat by the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan to sweep it in its favour.

Reacting to the ED raids on them, RJD leader and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, at present on a roadshow, said: “It doesn’t matter. Whenever ED, CBI and income tax act against Opposition leaders it means the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is worried. It also means that we are doing good work.”

3 MLAs join NDA

Three Opposition Mahagathbandhan MLAs in Bihar — Murari Gautam (Chenari) and Siddharth Saurav (Vikram) from the Congress, and Sangeeta Kumari (Mohania) of the RJD — crossed over to the BJP fold on Tuesday.

The three legislators entered the legislative Assembly with deputy chief minister and Bihar BJP president Samrat Choudhary and sat on the treasury benches.

However, they have not formally joined the BJP, nor any notification has been issued by the Assembly secretariat.