Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor, eight other leaders of the outfit and 2,000 unidentified supporters have been booked for assault, rioting and violating curfew orders amid a protest march in Patna Wednesday.
Apart from Kishor, the FIR at Patna’s Secretariat Police Station names Jan Suraaj’s state president Manoj Bharti, spokesperson Vivek Kumar, N. P. Mandal, Kishor Kumar, Arvind Singh, Lalan Yadav, Jitendra Yadav, and YouTuber-politician Manish Kashyap.
According to the FIR, authorities received information regarding Jan Suraaj’s plan to gherao the Vidhan Sabha the day before the June 23 protest and barricaded all routes to the Assembly.
“Initially, party leaders and workers were expected to proceed from Sheikhpura House to Dumra Chowky via Bailey Road, onward to Income Tax Golambar and R Block. However, the group diverted from Dumra Chowky via Airport Road towards Patel Golambar. Leaders and workers of the Jan Suraaj Party, about 2,000 in number, reached near Patel Golambar via Airport Road,” says the FIR, filed on the basis of a complaint by Sanjay Kumar Mishra, a chief cooperative extension officer in the office of the assistant registrar of Cooperative Societies.
It claims that although the march was meant to reach the Gardanibagh protest site via Chitkohra Bridge, it headed towards Gate No. 2 of the Patna Zoo via Taylor Road instead. “When police tried to stop them, the crowd broke through the barricades and reached up to SSG Gate,” it says.
The FIR further alleges the protestors “began jostling and physically confronting the male and female police officers deployed there”, despite being “repeatedly informed that prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita were in force from 21 July to 25 July… in light of the Bihar Legislative Assembly session.”
Protestors were allegedly instructed to head to the designated protest area at Gardanibagh and were warned of legal action for non-compliance. Despite this, “the processionists blocked half of Taylor Road and Patel Golambar, resulting in traffic disruption for about two hours, causing significant inconvenience to the general public”, the FIR adds.
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Jan Suraaj had decided to gherao the Assembly over three demands – disbursing Rs 2 lakh to poor families, allocation of three decimals of land to landless Dalit families, and action against alleged corruption in land surveys.
According to authorities, the party had not sought permission for the protest, and that a scuffle broke out, leading the police to lathi-charge protesters.
Kishor said later Wednesday that a Jan Suraaj delegation met Chief Secretary Amrit Lal Meena to formally submit a list of their demands, adding that “the party will organise another protest, gheraoing the chief minister’s residence” if the demands are not met in a week.
