PATNA: A team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday arrested JD(U) MLC Radha Charan Shah in a money laundering case after a day-long search at his properties in and around Ara town in Bihar.

Sah was picked up from his farmhouse in Anaith locality of the district town.Bhojpur SP Pramod Kumar on Wednesday late evening said in a brief press release, “The MLC Radha Charan Shah has been arrested by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).Soon after the arrest, the MLC complained of some health issues, then he was taken for the medical check-up at a local hospital by the ED officials.The ED team, which started searches from around 4 am on Wednesday morning, concluded its operation at around 8 pm.Shah was arrested after he failed to give satisfactory explanation about some of the money transactions in the past, an ED official familiar with his case told reporters.

Sah was later brought to the ED’s office at Patna in the late night.It was the second time the ED searched Shah’s properties in the last four and a half months.

Earlier in May this year, the central government’s agency conducted searches at 21 locations linked to the ruling party MLC and his associates.In the last week of August this year, the ED sent a notice to the MLC and his son, Kanhaiya Sah in connection with an alleged illegal sand mining case and asked them to appear before its office in 15 days.Earlier on February 7 this year, the income tax department sleuths searched the premises of the JD(U) MLC and his business associates at various locations in the state in connection with alleged tax evasion worth crores of rupees.Prior to joining CM Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), Sah was a leader of Lalu Prasad-led RJD.

He first won the Bihar legislative council poll from the Bhojpur-Buxar local authority seat as the RJD candidate.

He later joined the JD(U) and contested the council poll for a second time from the same seat as a candidate of Nitish’s party.

He won the council poll for the second consecutive term.

Reacting over the action against the party MLC, JD(U) senior leader and state’s rural development minister Shravan Kumar accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of adopting different yardsticks for the leaders of the BJP and the other parties.“This is not a new exercise.

No one is afraid of it.

Those who are against the BJP are corrupt people and those who are with them become "Doodh Ke Dhule".

They have a unique washing machine where leaders like Ajit Pawar went inside and came out clean.”(With inputs from Praveen, Ara)