Bihar Assembly Leader of Opposition and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday said that he would not make a statement on the entire incident until Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary takes responsibility.
He said this after he was released from the Secretariat police station following his detention during a protest in Patna.
Earlier, Tejashwi Yadav, along with several RJD workers, including party MP Misa Bharti, was detained by police while leading a protest march towards Lok Bhavan in Patna, raising concerns over alleged examination paper leaks, unemployment and the future of students and young people in the state.
“Until the Chief Minister takes responsibility, we will not give a statement on the entire incident and until action is taken against the culprits, we will not reveal in front of the people who gave the order to fire the shots; as long as justice will not be done to the students, unemployment will not end, we will continue to fight,” Tejashwi Yadav told reporters after his release.
Speaking to reporters after being released from the police station, RJD MP Misa Bharti said, “We were brought here into custody, and all our names and addresses were taken down, and after that, we were released.”
Further, RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha also alleged that “AK-47 rifles were fired at students” and accused the government of submitting a false affidavit in the matter, saying that a Union Minister had also made claims contrary to the affidavit.
Speaking to reporters, Jha said, “The fundamental question is an issue due to which we have filed an affidavit, and that issue is that AK-47s were fired at students, a false affidavit was submitted, and a Union Minister is making false claims that no shots were fired, even though the affidavit itself admits to shots being fired in the air.”
He said that students were continuing their sit-in protest at Gardanibagh and alleged that examinations were not being conducted fairly.
“Students are staging a sit-in protest at Gardanibagh. Not a single examination is being conducted honestly. They have mortgaged the entire framework of education and employment,” the RJD MP said.
During the protest, some demonstrators climbed onto a bus in which Tejashwi Yadav and other protesters were being taken by the police.
After being detained, Tejashwi Yadav said that the government was afraid of the youth and asserted that the RJD would continue to raise issues concerning students and unemployment.
The march comes amid a controversy over the use of an AK-47 rifle during a student protest in Siwan.
The Bihar government told the Supreme Court that a police constable had fired four rounds from an AK-47 into the air after being trapped in a crowd, while maintaining that no protester was injured by the firing. The constable has been suspended.
The RJD has been demanding action over the incident and has continued to raise concerns over unemployment, alleged paper leaks and transparency in examinations in the state.
Further, protestors taking part in RJD protests posed as police personnel, holding AK-47 rifle-shaped cutouts towards the students.
Meanwhile, Patna Inspector General of Police (IG) Jitendra Rana denied the use of force during the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Lok Bhavan march and said that “water cannons were used” on the crowd as the protestors were being stopped from proceeding further.
Speaking to reporters, Rana said, “The march started from Gandhi Maidan has concluded. A delegation is going to Lok Bhawan. Some of the people who were taken into custody have already left for Lok Bhawan. The police have not used force. Water cannon was used on the crowd.”