Media reports Thursday said the Rahstriya Janata Dal leader facing trial over the murder of Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Ajit Sarkar in 1998 allegedly held a meeting of more than 50 supporters in the Beur jail in Patna Wednesday.

Taking suo motu notice of the media reports, a bench comprising judges N. Santosh Hegde and S. B. Sinha directed the Bihar inspector general (prisons) to submit by Dec 13 a detailed report on the meeting allegedly facilitated by the jail authorities in violation of the law.

Earlier, responding to a query from the court, Additional Solicitor General Amarendra Saran submitted he had no independent report on the incident and that he had read about it only in the newspapers.

The bench said: "We have also read reports that appeared in the media today (Thursday) and we think we must call for a detailed report on the incident from the inspector general (prisons) and the CBI (which is also investigating the murder case)."

It was reported that inspector general (prisons) Deepak Kumar Singh, who found Yadav hosting the meeting in the restricted area of the high-security jail, had recommended the suspension of jail superintendent P.K. Jha for his failure to enforce the provisions of the jail manual.

Singh found that the entry of the visitors had not been recorded and that the gathering was at a place that was not accessible to even those visitors who entered with proper permission.

The bench asked both the CBI and the inspector general (prisons) to submit their reports on or before Dec 13 and posted the matter for hearing on Dec 14.

--Indo-Asian News Service