PATNA: Six RJD workers were arrested and an FIR was registered against over a 100 unnamed people on Wednesday for attacking Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi's convoy in Vaishali district. The area the convoy was passing is known to be an RJD stronghold.
No one was injured in the stone pelting that took place near Kalapahar village under Bidupur police station on Tuesday evening. Sushil Kumar Modi’s car was damaged after a group pelted stones as his convoy passed through the village. Former deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav’s convoy had passed the site a few minutes before the incident, said sources.
A shocked Sushil Kumar Modi blamed the incident on RJD workers, saying they were frustrated because their party lost power in Bihar due to its supremo’s corruption. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, however, denied his party's role in the incident.
“It was immediately clear who did it. Groups of people who perpetrated this uncivilised act were chanting slogans in praise of Lalu Prasad Yadav. They were not chanting slogans in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said Sushil Kumar Modi. Chief minister Nitish Kumar spoke to him regarding the incident and ordered police to take suitable action.
Tejaswi Yadav, while addressing a gathering of RJD supporters at Samastipur later in the evening, condemned the incident and denied his party’s alleged role. “Our people know how to behave. Sushil Modi has been working against my father and our family since 1990. Never before has this kind of incident perpetrated our workers. They are telling lies,” he said.
“Nine people have been named in the FIR for pelting stones at the deputy chief minister’s convoy. Six of them have been arrested. Raids are on to arrest the rest and a probe is on,” said Vaishali superintendent of police Rakesh Kumar.
The attack, widely condemned by parties cutting across ideological differences, is seen as an extreme outcome of public resentment against Nitish Kumar breaking away from the grand alliance and forming a government in Bihar with BJP in July.
Lalu Yadav’s two sons – Tejaswi Yadav and former health minister Tej Pratap Yadav – are currently touring Bihar and telling people about “Nitish Kumar’s betrayal of the mandate”.
“RJD has for long a culture of promoting violence and corruption. RJD workers had attacked the state BJP headquarters in Patna last month. Theirs is a party that instituted jungle raj in Bihar by promoting leaders like Mohammad Shahabuddin and Raj Vallabh Yadav,” said Sushil Modi.
Lalu Yadav, refusing to accept that the stone pelters were RJD workers said, “If it is found that those who indulged in this alleged attack are RJD workers, I will show them the door”.