Prashant Kishor Alleges Detention of Jan Suraaj Workers
Jan Suraaj chief accuses Bihar Police of acting under BJP pressure ahead of Bankipur bypoll
- Prashant Kishor alleges over 16 Jan Suraaj workers were detained before polling.
- Stages protest at Jakkanpur police station in Patna.
- Claims BJP is misusing police to influence the Bankipur bypoll.
- BJP and Bihar Police have not responded to the allegations.
GG News Bureau
Patna, 30th July: Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor on Thursday alleged that more than 16 of his party workers were detained by the Bihar Police ahead of polling for the Bankipur Assembly bypoll, accusing the ruling BJP of using the administration to influence the election.
Kishor, who is contesting his first election from the Bankipur seat, reached the Jakkanpur police station in Patna with his supporters and claimed that police officials had failed to disclose the whereabouts of the detained party workers.
Addressing reporters, Kishor alleged that the workers were taken into custody without any official record or information about the cases in which they had been detained. He claimed the Station House Officer (SHO) told him the workers had been shifted to different police stations and denied Jakkanpur police station’s involvement in the detentions.
The Jan Suraaj chief further alleged that the SHO threatened him and his supporters during an argument at the police station.
Claiming that the BJP feared defeat in the bypoll, Kishor alleged that the detentions were aimed at preventing his supporters from participating in the polling process.
“The police can keep a person in custody for 24 hours without producing him before a magistrate. A plan has been devised to keep some of my supporters in custody till voting is over,” he alleged.
Kishor also accused the ruling NDA of misusing the administrative machinery despite deploying its legislators for campaigning and said his party would seek action against the police officials concerned after the bypoll.
The bypoll to the Bankipur Assembly seat, necessitated by the resignation of BJP MLA Nitin Nabin, is being viewed as a direct contest between Prashant Kishor and BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha, although 26 candidates are in the fray.
The Bihar Police and the BJP had not issued any official response to Kishor’s allegations till the filing of this report.
