Sadhu appeared before the special vigilance court and was remanded to judicial custody till December 12. His petition for bail will be heard by the court this Wednesday.

Sadhu, who has been charged with being a beneficiary in the multi-crore flood relief scam, was forced to give in after the rejection of his anticipatory bail petition by the Supreme Court last Friday. The MP from the Goplagunj seat in northern Bihar was evading arrest since last month when the vigilance court here issued a warrant against him and ordered attachment of his properties.

Coming out of the court today, Sadhu said the Nitish Kumar government was sending him to jail for political reasons. “This government wants me to go to jail so I am going. But I have full faith in the judiciary,” he said as he was hauled away.

The chargesheet says a sum of Rs 6 lakh was transferred to Sadhu’s bank account by the flood scam kingpin, Santosh Jha. Yadav had then claimed that the money was payment received for sale of a car to Jha’s father.

But the vigilance department probing the scam found that the car was purchased from a New Delhi-based man Santosh Jena for a much lower price. Jena later claimed in court that he had never sold his car to Sadhu. Further investigations revealed that the MP had forged documents to acquire the car.

The flood scam involves loot of more than Rs 16 crore meant to provide relief to the flood-affected people in Bihar. The scam was first exposed by The Indian Express through a series of investigative reports, that also implicated the former District Magistrate of Patna, Gautam Goswami, along with relief material supplier Santosh Jha and nine others. Goswami was recently released on bail while Jha is still in jail.