The Bihar government booked almost the entire top brass of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), including its leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, for violating lockdown directives by trying to take out a march on Friday in spite of denial of permission.
An FIR was registered at the Sachivalaya police station in Patna on the application of special executive magistrate Navin Mohan Prasad late on Friday night.
Altogether 35 senior RJD leaders, including leader of Opposition Tejashwi, his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav, party’s state unit chief Jagadanand Singh and several legislators, have been named in the FIR.
The FIR has been lodged under the Indian Penal Code Sections 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by a public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of a disease dangerous to life), 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act and the Disaster Management Act.
In the FIR, the special executive magistrate has said that Tejashwi had sought permission to take out the march to Gopalganj but it was rejected by the district administration in the light of the ongoing lockdown. The rejection was intimated to Tejashwi. The RJD had taken out the march to press for the arrest of JDU MLA Amarendra Kumar Pandey, an accused in a triple-murder that took place on May 24.
All the three deceased belonged to the family of an RJD leader J.P. Yadav, who was also injured in the attack.
Former chief minister Rabri Devi, who was also a part of the party’s march to Gopalganj that was stopped outside her 10 Circular Road residence, has not been included in the FIR.
Patna (central) superintendent of police Vinay Tiwari said: “The FIR includes names of only those who created disturbance while trying to take out the march. Rabri Devi did not do any such thing.”
Tejashwi hit out at chief minister Nitish Kumar after the FIR was registered, saying: “If you think that you can cow me down and my party leaders through false cases, you are living in illusion.”
