A wall-mounted fan in a room adjacent to the one in which RJD supremo Lalu Prasad is staying at the Palamau district Circuit House in Jharkhand caught fire, allegedly due to short circuit on Tuesday morning.

However, the fire was doused soon and the administration denied injury to any person. Palamau DC Shashi Ranjan claimed that the fire was immediately addressed by the administration.

“The fire was caused by a short circuit and electricity supply to the premises was snapped soon after it was brought to the notice and the fire in the wall mounted fan was doused. It did not happen in the room where Lalu Yadav was staying,” said Ranjan.

“No one has suffered any injury due to the incident and no significant damage has been reported. The short circuit has been rectified and the damaged fan that caught fire was removed,” the deputy commissioner added.

According to RJD Jharkhand spokesperson Manoj Kumar, the former Bihar chief minister had come from Patna to Palamau on Monday evening and was staying at the Palamau Circuit House.

“Laluji was having breakfast in his room when a wall mounted fan in the adjacent room caught fire at around 9am on Tuesday. The attendants switched off the electricity supply and doused the flame,” said Manoj Kumar.

“Lalu will appear before a special court on Wednesday in connection with a 2009 case pertaining to the violation of the Model Code of Conduct during Jharkhand assembly polls,” added Manoj Kumar.

He is slated to appear in the court of special judge Satish Kumar Munda.

A case under IPC sections 188, 279, 290, 291 and 34, and section 127 of Representation of People’s Act was registered against the RJD chief in Garhwa district after his chopper had diverted and landed in a paddy field allegedly owing to the mistake of the pilot instead of the scheduled helipad in Medininagar during the 2009 Assembly polls in Jharkhand.

Prasad’s counsel Prabhat Kumar said the case was later transferred to Ranchi and then to Medininagar.

After getting the information about the fire, former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi called and spoke to her husband Lalu Yadav and inquired about the incident. She also expressed surprise that fire extinguishers were not there at the Circuit House and neither was fire brigade deployed at the Circuit House.

Lalu Yadav is staying it the Circuit House along with Jharkhand RJD in-charge Jayaprakash Narayan Yadav and Bhola Yadav.

Large number of RJD cadres are meeting Lalu Yadav on Tuesday with discussion on strengthening the party base in Jharkhand where they are in the ruling JMM-led alliance along with Congress.