Bihar BJP women cell books Nitish, Tejashwi over lathicharge on workers

A fresh complaint against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav and state government officials was lodged in a local court here on Saturday in connection with the police lathicharge on BJP workers, especially women, during a protest march in the state capital on July 13.

The complaint has been filed by Lajwanti Jha, head of the women cell of state BJP. Earlier, a similar complaint was lodged by BJP worker Krishna Singh Kallu before a court in Patna.

Talking to reporters, Jha said, "Police lathicharge on BJP workers, especially women, on June 13 was barbaric and it was done on the directions of the CM, deputy CM and other senior officials of the district administration and police."

"One of our workers, Vijay Kumar Singh, died due to the lathicharge. Action must be taken against those who are responsible. I have filed a complaint in this regard before the competent court seeking action against them," Jha, who was accompanied by her lawyer Ratnesh Kumar, said.

On Thursday, the Patna district administration had claimed that Singh died because of a heart ailment and complications related to it.

Both the postmortem report by Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) and the histopathological examination conducted by the institute concluded that the death of Singh was caused due to a heart disease and other complications related to it, a statement by the district administration had said on Thursday.

The district administration also said that CCTV camera footage clearly shows that the deceased BJP functionary fainted between 1:22pm and 1:27pm in Chajju Bagh area, while the lathicharge occurred at Dak Bungalow crossing area. Singh was not present on the spot where the lathicharge had taken place, the administration said.

The incident had taken place during BJP's protest march, organized against the state government's new recruitment policy of teachers.

However, the BJP termed the postmortem report as 'manipulated' and demanded a high-level independent inquiry into the medical report prepared by the PMCH.

Immediately after the July 13 incident, several senior BJP leaders of the state demanded resignation of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar alleging that police had acted on the direction of the chief minister's office.