PATNA: The report of an autopsy performed on Bihar BJP leader Vijay Kumar Singh has triggered a political storm as it found that Singh died of heart disease and other complications related to it even as BJP continued to stick to its earlier stand that Singh died due to lathi-charge during the Bihar Vidhan Sabha march on July 13.
Both the grand alliance partners--RJD and JD (U)--fired a salvo at BJP for claiming that Singh died in the police action despite the autopsy report concluding that his death was not caused by the lathi blows.
While rejecting the autopsy report, state BJP president Samrat Choudhary asked the state government to order a judicial probe into the ‘unprovoked’ police lathi-charge in which several leaders and workers of the party suffered injuries.
A BJP delegation had also submitted a memorandum to Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, seeking a CBI probe into the lathi charge. In the memorandum, BJP leaders blamed chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad for the lathi-charge on the procession. Choudhary said the post-mortem report was prepared under the influence of the state government.
He alleged that the government was trying to hush up the matter but his party would not accept it at any cost. He reiterated that his leader was murdered at the behest of the government. The post-mortem report was ‘manipulated’, he alleged.
“If the government has the mettle, it should hand over the video of the post-mortem to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for further investigation,” he added.
He said that it was also initially established Singh died due to head injuries but the government constituted another committee to cover up the matter. On the other hand, RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwary said the post-mortem report had proved that Singh's death was not caused by due police lathi charge. He said that BJP's allegation was baseless.
“BJP leaders are politicising the death of Singh and they should stop it,” he added. BJP's Jehanabad district general secretary Singh was brought in an unconscious state to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) and was admitted to ICU where he died during treatment.
There were no injury marks on his body, both the PMCH superintendent and Patna district officials had claimed. A histopathological examination was also conducted to ascertain the exact cause of death of Singh.
Earlier, Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Rajiv Mishra had released video footage, which showed that the BJP leader was not present when police resorted to the use of force. Meanwhile, BJP's youth wing has decided to launch a signature campaign from July 24 to collect signatures from people against the government's move to hush up the 'murder case'.
The campaign will conclude on August 9. Later a delegation would meet the Governor and submit them, a press statement issued by BJP said.