Tejashwi Yadav’s security guards beat up media persons at Patna Secretariat

PATNA: Security guards of Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday roughed up media persons outside Patna Secretariat. The incident happened when Tejashwi was expected to speak to the media after a cabinet meeting. When journalists tried to question Tejashwi after he came out from a meeting, his security guards manhandled them. While trying to keep the media away, Tejashwi's bodyguard manhandled some media persons present there.

#WATCH Media persons manhandled by security personnel of Tejashwi Yadav at Bihar Secretariat (Patna) pic.twitter.com/efMDg7QdQ2

— ANI (@ANI_news) July 12, 2017

Media fraternity has condemned the incident and termed it as a 'display of arrogance' by Tejashwi. "The attack on media persons clearly displays arrogance of Tejashwi," Rajdeep Sardesai, Consulting Editor of India Today, said. Bihar BJP leader Sushil Modi said, "All the body guards should be dismissed for abusing, humiliating, thrashing media on instigation of Tejashwi". A day after JD(U) asked him to come clean, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Prasad Yadav virtually ruled out his resignation, while dubbing the FIR registered against him under various anti-graft provisions as "political vendetta." "The FIR (in land-for-hotels case) is part of a political vendetta. BJP president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are conspiring against me and family members out of political reasons," Yadav told reporters after coming out of a cabinet meeting. He said "everybody knows that they (BJP) are afraid of Laluji. But, it was not known that they are afraid of even a youth of 28 years of age. "Can you believe that a child of 14 years of age whose moustache has even not come will indulge in corruption?" he said and dubbed the FIR as "farzi" (fake). The FIR was lodged in connection with a private party allegedly giving three acres of land in 2004 in Patna to them in return of getting license to run two IRCTC hotels at Ranchi and Puri when Lalu Prasad was Railway minister. Nitish Kumar has not publicly spoken about the raids in connection with handing over the maintenance of two railway-run hotels to private parties allegedly in return for a prime piece of land to Lalu's family in Patna. (With PTI inputs)