Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha, Hazaribag MLA, supporters arrested
Sinha and Jaiswal entered into an altercation with the police when stopped. The BJP leaders along with supporters and sympathisers were determined to take the procession through the said route to “solve the issue”.
The Hazaribag police on Tuesday arrested former Union minister Yashwant Sinha (father of civil aviation minister Jayant Sinha), BJP legislator Manish Jaiswal and former MLA Lok Nath Mahto along with about 200 supporters for leading a procession on the eve of Ramnavami on the Hazaribag-Barkagaon route that has been closed since 1984.
Sinha and Jaiswal entered into an altercation with the police when stopped. The BJP leaders along with supporters and sympathisers were determined to take the procession through the said route to “solve the issue”.
The police made preventive arrest of the BJP leaders and lodged them in Demotand agriculture farm. No one was allowed to meet them, which angered the party workers.
Hazaribag had earned a bad name due to repeated communal violence during Ramnavami in the past. The administration took the firm steps to keep things in control.
Negotiations were on to solve the issue in consultation with the police headquarters and mandarins in the state secretariat.
The Hazaribag deputy commissioner and superintendent of police besides DIG Bhimsen Tuti were also camping at the agricultural farm that has been turned into a camp jail. The situation is under control, said the police.
Hazaribag DC Ravi Shankar Shukla said the administration is in dialogue for consensus and will end the impasse peacefully. “We have made preventive arrests and see whether there was any cognizable offence. If so, cases will be lodged under Section 151(1) of the CrPC,” he said.
Hazaribag MLA Manish Jaiswal told Hindustan Times over phone that they had gone to Mahudih in Barkagaon with the intention to solve the long drawn problem but were arrested.
“Every year there is heavy police deployment in the villages situated around a mosque on the route and villagers, youths and women in particular flee their villages in fear, he said adding that justice delayed is justice denied.