RJD chief Lalu Prasad has been diagnosed with pneumonia but is currently stable, doctors at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) here said on Friday.

The health condition of the jailed former Bihar chief minister deteriorated suddenly on Thursday night when he complained of breathlessness, sending hospital authorities into tizzy. Soon, state health minister Banna Gupta, RIMS director Dr Kameshwar Prasad, Lalu’s doctor Umesh Prasad and others rushed to the RIMS Paying Ward to take stock of the situation.

The RIMS director told reporters on Friday that they were in touch with experts of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). “Lalu Prasad has been detected with pneumonia but is stable. His lungs too are infected. We had performed a rapid antigen kit (RAT) Covid test which was negative. However, an RT-PCR test is also being done for confirmation," Dr Prasad said.

Lalu, RIMS sources have confirmed, is suffering from multiple age-related ailments such as high blood pressure, hyper-tension, kidney malfunction and heart issues.

Concerned over the sudden deterioration in Lalu’s health, daughter Misa Bharati came to Ranchi on Friday afternoon. Till reports last came in, she was awaiting permission of jail authorities to meet him. RJD sources said Lalu’s wife Rabri Devi and their younger son and leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Yadav were also scheduled to reach Ranchi in a chartered flight by Friday night.

Scores of RJD workers and supporters had lined up outside RIMS Paying Ward since morning to enquire about their leader's health.

As per the jail manual, only three persons are allowed to meet Lalu every Saturday. However, the Opposition BJP has been accusing the Hemant Soren government of blatantly violating the manual ever since the JMM-Congress-RJD coalition government was formed in Jharkhand in December 2019.

The Jharkhand High Court is also hearing a PIL accusing the RJD chief of violating the jail manual. During Friday’s hearing, the court expressed unhappiness with RIMS for not submitting a reply to its earlier query.

The high court will hear the case again on February 5.

Ever since his convictions in several cases concerning the Rs 970 crore fodder scam, Lalu has been in custody since January 2018. He has been at RIMS on account of his failing health. He was moved to Kelly’s Bungalow over concerns of infection in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic in August 2020.

However, on November 26, Ranchi district administration moved him back to the RIMS Paying Ward after an audio of his purported conversations with BJP MLAs, allegedly to lure them to switch sides during a Bihar Assembly floor test last year, went viral. While BJP MLA Lalan Paswan, whom Lalu allegedly phoned, had filed an FIR against the RJD chief in Patna in the last week of November 2020, accusing him of horse-trading, Jharkhand High Court lawyer Rajeev Kumar had also filed a PIL in Ranchi in the first week of December 2020 seeking the court’s intervention over the use of a mobile phone by a prisoner.