Ex-home secy who stopped Rath Yatra to join BJP

Former bureaucrat RK Singh, who had arrested BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani during his Ram Rath Yatra in 1990, will join the saffron party on Friday.

Former bureaucrat RK Singh, who had arrested BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani during his Ram Rath Yatra in 1990, will join the saffron party on Friday.

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At that time, Singh was a young additional district magistrate in Bihar’s Samastipur and had stopped the Rath Yatra by arresting Advani.

The 1975 batch IAS officer had retired as Union home secretary in June, a position he had held for two years under a fixed-tenure provision at the Centre.

Before his appointment as home secretary, defence minister AK Antony had picked Singh to head the department of defence production in 2009 in view of his clean reputation.

Singh had hinted soon after his retirement that he was considering joining politics and was named to join as Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s advisor.
Singh had, however, declined the offer.