Bihar: BJP alleges its leader died following lathi charge, administration denies

Patna: A controversy broke out over the “death” of a Bihar BJP leader following a police lathi charge during the party’s march towards the assembly here on Thursday.

The saffron party alleged that its Jehanabad district general secretary succumbed to injuries suffered in a “brutal” lathi charge by the police, prompting the local administration to issue a quick rebuttal.

In a statement, the district administration in Patna said Vijay Kumar Singh, a resident of Jehanabad district, was “found unconscious by the roadside”.

According to the information, a BJP leader in Bihar allegedly died while taking part in a “Vidhan Sabha march” against the state’s Nitish Kumar government, evoking allegations from senior party leaders that he was “killed in a brutal lathi charge”.

The party’s Jehanabad district general secretary Vijay Singh was brought in an unconscious state to the Patna Medical College and Hospital where he died, PMCH Superintendent Dr I S Thakur said.

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, a former state BJP president, told reporters that the death of Vijay Singh during the protest march was a “sacrificial offering”.

“Besides, thousands of BJP workers have been injured, some of them seriously, while lending their voice to the state’s students and youngsters. The injured include many women and members of Parliament and the state legislature,” alleged Rai, who represents the Ujiyarpur Lok Sabha seat.

Officials were tight-lipped about the cause of the death of Singh, who was said to be in his 40s, though the district administration in Patna came out with a brief statement asserting that “no injury marks” were found on his body.

The statement claimed Singh was found “in an unconscious state on the roadside in Chhajju Bagh locality” from where he was taken to PMCH, the state’s largest government hospital. “He was admitted to the ICU but died during treatment,” the PMCH superintendent said.

The cause of the death could not be ascertained till post-mortem examination is conducted, another PMCH official said. Scores of BJP workers, including senior leaders like former deputy chief ministers Sushil Kumar Modi and Renu Devi, were rounded up by the police and taken to a police station after they tried to cross the barricades put up at the Dak Bungalow Crossing in the state capital.

The “Vidhan Sabha march”, which was organised in support of agitations against the state government’s teacher recruitment policy, commenced from the Gandhi Maidan and was stopped a couple of kilometres away from the assembly premises. Besides batons, the police used water cannons and also took recourse to bursting tear gas shells to disperse the BJP workers who tried to breach the barricades.

BJP president JP Nadda claimed in a tweet that the lathi charge on BJP workers is the result of the failure and indignation of the state government.

“The Mahagathbandhan government is attacking democracy to save the citadel of corruption. To save the person who has been charge-sheeted, the chief minister of Bihar has even forgotten his morality,” he said.

PTI