RJD leader’s son arrested for allegedly assaulting cop on duty, BJP slams govt

The Bihar police arrested Patna Municipal Corporation councillor Mohammad Asfar Ahmad, who is the son of senior RJD leader and former MLC Anwar Ahmad

The Pirbahore police in Bihar arrested Patna Municipal Corporation councillor Mohammad Asfar Ahmad, who is the son of senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former MLC Anwar Ahmad, for allegedly assaulting a police officer on duty on Friday evening, officials said.

Police said that Mohammad Asfar Ahmad was forcing cops to release a man who was detained for interrogation in a case related to attacking a police team. (Twitter/ANI)

It was alleged that Asfar Ahmad, along with his supporters, misbehaved with the deputy superintendent of police (DSP) (town), Ashok Kumar, and the station house officer (SHO) of the Pirbahore police station, Sabih-ul-Haq, when they refused to release a local shopkeeper Mohammad Sarfaraj from the police custody. The councillor allegedly manhandled another cop abusing police when they objected to it.

Police said that Sarfaraj was detained for interrogation in a case related to attacking a police team leading to grievous injury of a constable late on Thursday night. The Pirbahore police received inputs that some antisocial elements were carrying illegal weapons assembled near Patna Market. As a police team rushed to the spot near a mosque, they caught four suspects and returned to the police station for further interrogation.

In the meantime, a group of locals surrounded the police team, attacked and freed four suspects from their clutches. They gheraoed the Pirbahore police station and raised slogans against the police personnel alleging that cops in civil dress caught and harassed innocent youngsters on false information.

On Friday evening, police detained Sarfaraj for further probe into the absconding four suspects. Irate over his detention, locals blocked the Ashok Rajpath, burnt tyres, shouted slogans against the administration and forced down the shutters of shops.

Asfar along with his supporters joined them. He entered the police station, forced policemen to immediately release the detained shopkeeper, misbehaved with them and manhandled a cop.

“When I intervened, the councillor manhandled and started threatening. His father Anwar Ahmad also reached there,” said the SHO adding that the former MLC was released on a PR (personal recognisance) bond from the police station.

However, the former MLC told media persons that he was sitting inside the police station for a personal reason. He denied all charges levelled against him and his son.

Asfar and Sarfaraj have been booked under Section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The DSP said that they are analysing CCTV footage to identify the miscreants who attacked the policemen, disrupted vehicular traffic and gheraoed the police station.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has slammed the state government over the incident calling it a reflection of how antisocial elements have become emboldened in the new Grand Alliance government. BJP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Kumar Modi asked why the police released the former MLC despite the latter allegedly creating noisy scenes inside the police station. “The RJD supporters entered the police station and misbehaved and disrupted official work. Is this ‘people’s government’”, Modi asked, taking a dig at chief minister Nitish Kumar who recently said there is ‘janata raj’ and not jungle raj’ in Bihar.