Rohini Acharya, the daughter of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Yadav, announced on Saturday she has quit politics and disowned her family. A day earlier, the RJD suffered a crushing loss in the assembly election, winning only 25 seats in the 243-member assembly.
She told reporters that she took the decision after RJD MP Sanjay Yadav asked her. The MP is also a close aide of Acharya’s brother, Tejashwi Yadav. “This is what Sanjay Yadav had asked me to do,” Acharya, who had donated a kidney to her father, said.
She also mentioned another name – Rameez Nemat Khan.
Who is this man who came into the spotlight following the allegations made by Acharya? This name was not seen in the media or Bihar politics earlier.
It turned out Rameez Nemat Khan is an old friend of Tejashwi Yadav and a part of his core team. Their friendship extended from the cricket ground to politics. RJD sources said Khan oversees social media and campaigning teams of his friend and the party.
A resident of Uttar Pradesh, Rameez Nemat Khan is the son-in-law of former MP Rizwan Zaheer from Uttar Pradesh’s Balrampur Lok Sabha seat, now known as Shravasti. Rameez Nemat Khan’s father-in-law served as a two-time MP on a Samajwadi Party ticket as well as Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). He also contested as an independent candidate once.
Rizwan Zaheer was also the youngest MLA in UP at one point.
Rameez Nemat Khan’s wife Zeba Rizwan was a candidate from Tulsipur seat which she could not win twice – in a Congress ticket and as an independent while in jail.
Rameez Nemat Khan faced a case linked to violence during the district panchayat election in Tulsipur in 2021. The allegation against him said he attacked Congress leader Deepankar Singh and his men.
Subsequently, in 2022, Rameez Nemat Khan, his wife, father-in-law Rizwan Zaheer and three others were arrested for allegedly conspiracy linked to the murder case of Firoz Pappu, the former president of Tulsipur Nagar panchayat.
Rameez Nemat Khan has been granted bail in several cases, while some are pending. Nine cases were filed against him in Balrampur and two in Kaushambi.
Other serious charges that Rameez Nemat Khan faces include another murder case in 2023 – the killing of Pratapgarh contractor Shakeel Khan. The body was found near railway tracks in Kushinagar. Rameez Nemat Khan became an accused in the case based on a complaint filed by the contractor’s wife.
That same year, the UP government seized land worth approximately Rs 4.75 crore bought in Rameez Nemat Khan’s name.
He was arrested under the Gangsters Act in July 2024, and granted bail in April this year.
Rameez Nemat Khan and his wife then filed a petition in the Supreme Court, which directed the authorities to take the local court’s permission before any move to arrest him or start a new trial.
Since the Supreme Court’s order, the couple has been getting relief in many other cases – and no new cases have been filed against them.
Rameez Nemat Khan was born in November 1986. His father, Nematullah Khan, is a professor at Jamia Millia Islamia.
Rameez Nemat Khan attended Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, and earned a BA and MBA from Jamia. He has been a cricketer since childhood, playing for teams of various age groups in Delhi and Jharkhand. He also captained the Jharkhand Under-22 team in 2008-09. During this time, he developed a friendship with Tejashwi Yadav, which later led to his political career. In 2016, he joined the RJD and has since remained a key member of Tejashwi Yadav’s team.