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Author: Times News Network
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 20, 2005
Introduction: RJD candidate was held for booth capturing, UPA left Red-Faced
The UPA government and the Congress leadership squirmed with embarrassment on Wednesday as the NDA launched a blistering attack over the way Union minister Jai Prakash Narain Yadav allegedly pressurised the Bihar police into releasing his younger brother, RJD candidate for the Jamui seat, Vijai Prakash Yadav, after he was nabbed while capturing a booth in his constituency on Tuesday.
Vijai Prakash, who was carrying lakhs in cash, liquor bottles and illicit weapons, including detonators, had been booked for a nonbailable offence and could have been released only by the judiciary.
Stung by the illegal release of the RJD candidate which came despite TV channels running a footage of his dramatic arrest and the contraband found on him, the Election Commission (EC) secured the suspension of the local police officer, Mukeshwar Prasad, while the state government also promptly removed IG, Bhagalpur range, N C Dhaundiyal.
With the poll watchdog cracking the whip, the Congress swiftly distanced itself from its Bihar ally, Lalu Prasad's RJD. As the NDA trained its guns at the UPA with its chief ministerial canditate for Bihar, Nitish Kumar, seeking to embarrass Prime Minister Manmoban Singh by asking for his response, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi preferred, for once, not to take issue with the adversary "Everybody is equal before law. If there is any truth in the reports, law should take its course," said Singhvi.
BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley shot off a letter to the PM asking for the removal of both Jai Prakash Narain Yadav and Lalu Prasad in what was seen as a clear effort to embarrass Manmohan. "If members of his council of ministers become a threat to free and fair electoral process, the country expects the PM to use his prerogative and distance his government from such individuals," the BJP general secretary said. Though the PMO dodged the challenge, sources indicated that the PM appeared to recognise the damage caused by the latest of a series of PR disasters inflicted by the RJD.
Jai Prakash Narain Yadav, who is the junior minister for water resources, is among Lalu's closest associates and is perennially at the side of his leader. His younger brother, who won the Jamui seat in February but is locked in a head-to-head contest with JD (U)'s Abhay Singh this time on, was released by Mukeshwar Prasad on a personal bond after the local SP had fended off sustained pressure allegedly brought to bear upon him by the Union minister of state for water resources. This, despite the fact that a person arrested for a nonbailable offence cannot be released on a personal bond.
This will be the focal point of the investigation, to be conducted by additional director-general of police, Bihar, Manoj Nath, into the episode. Nath has been asked to submit his findings in three days.
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