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Bihar police books Tejashwi for violating lockdown, he says protests will continue
RJD leaders are demanding the arrest of JD(U) MLA Amarendra Kumar Pandey alleging his involvement in a firing incident that killed three people and injured one RJD activist in Gopalganj district.
The police have lodged two separate cases against Bihar’s leader of opposition (LoP) Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, former chief minister Rabri Devi, RJD’s state unit president Jagdanand Singh and over 150 party leaders and workers for violating lockdown norms after they were denied permission to visit Gopalganj to meet kin of victims in the triple murder case, in which a JD(U) MLA is accused.
On Friday morning, scores of supporters, including RJD MLAs, had gathered outside Rabri Devi’s residence ahead of the proposed march, which was not allowed by the police.
The first FIR, lodged with Sachivalaya police station in Patna, was against 92 persons, 32 of them identified, including former minister Tej Pratap Yadav, Abdul Bari Siddiqui and others. It said they did not follow social distancing norms and violated the Covid-19 lockdown norms.
City SP (Central) Vinay Tiwari confirmed that the case was lodged under section 269 of the Indian Penal Code, which relates to “negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life”.
In Gopalganj, the Hathua police lodged FIR against RJD MLA from Barauli, Mohammad Nemtullah, CPI (ML) MLA from Darauli, Satyadeo Ram, and RJD’s Gopalganj district president Rajesh Singh Kushwaha.
Gopalganj DM Arshad Aziz said 13 persons have been named in the FIR while 60 others were unidentified. All the accused were booked for staging protest at Rupanchak village under Hathua police station without the permission of an authority.
The HT Guide to Coronavirus COVID-19
RJD and CPI leaders were demanding action against JD (U) MLA Amrendra Kumar Pandey alias Pappu Pandey for his alleged involvement in the firing in which three people were killed and an RJD activist sustained injuries at Rupanchak village.
Following the FIR, Tejashwi on Saturday tweeted that he was not afraid of “false cases” and that protests would continue till the arrest of absconding JD(U) MLA.
