Don’t stop helping people, even if you have to sell off everything.” This was the parting message to family and friends from former five-term MP Rajesh Ranjan, better known as Pappu Yadav, when Bihar police were taking him away in a 32-year-old kidnapping case recently. Anybody familiar with Pappu’s eventful past as a bahubali—he was once sentenced to life imprisonment for CPI(M) legislator Ajit Sarkar’s murder—would find it hard to see the don’s metamorphosis into a crusader fighting against an “unjust system” and “unscrupulous politicians”. So infamous were Pappu’s exploits, both in and out of prison, that actor Sonu Sood sought to take tips from him after he was signed to play bahubali Chhedi Singh in Salman Khan’s 2010 blockbuster Dabangg. Ten years later, both Sonu and Pappu hit the headlines for playing good samaritans during the Covid pandemic. While Sonu remains a much-admired hero, Pappu has landed behind bars, with a 1989 case returning to haunt him. After being sent to judicial custody for 14 days, Pappu has been in the ICU of a hospital in Darbhanga.