'Hired Goons': BJP Team Meets Injured Workers In Patna, Demands Judicial Inquiry Into Police Lathicharge

BJP demands judicial investigation and NHRC intervention in police action during Bihar procession; Nadda leads the fact-finding team.

BJP MLAs wear black scarves to protest against police action on party supporters during their Vidhan Sabha March on Thursday during Monsoon Session of Bihar Assembly

The BJP said on Saturday (July 16) that the "state-sponsored and brutal" police action against its procession in the Bihar capital earlier this week deserved a judicial investigation and the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). This was stated by a four-member fact-finding team led by BJP national president J P Nadda as it met with several party activists who were injured in the police action on June 13 and are being treated in hospitals.

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das is also on the team, as are Members of Parliament Manoj Tiwari, Sunita Duggal, and Vishnu Dayal Ram, news agency PTI reported. 

BJP leader Manoj Tiwari accused police of a pre-planned conspiracy and an attempt to murder party workers, saying: "The 13 July incident was a pre-planned conspiracy and an attempt to murder (our leaders and workers)," PTI quoted him as saying. 

As per the report, Duggal claimed that women BJP workers were "hit with lathis on their chests and heads by male police personnel" on Thursday during the party's "Vidhan Sabha march" to protest the Nitish Kumar government's teacher recruitment policy.

Tiwari, a Lok Sabha MP from Delhi with Bihar roots, claimed "771 BJP workers" were injured, and "some of them were chased all the way to hospitals and thrashed inside the premises," it said. 

The members of the team claimed that the incident reminded them of the "Jallianwala Bagh massacre" and wondered if "hired goons were donning police uniforms," according to the report. 

"We will submit a report on our investigation to the national president and strongly recommend a judicial inquiry," said the panel members, who also confirmed that they would approach the NHRC with a request for an investigation, it said. 

"Our state president Samrat Choudhary will pursue the matter with the NHRC," the members said, speaking with the Bihar unit chief seated beside them, it added. 

According to the report, the panel claimed that rules were not followed in the use of water cannons, tear gas shells and lathicharge, and that BJP workers they spoke with insisted that chilli powder was thrown at them, not the other way around.

Concerning the controversy surrounding the death of Jehanabad district general secretary Vijay Singh, team members expressed dismay at the Patna administration "giving itself a clean chit" before the post-mortem report.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) chief spokesman Neeraj Kumar questioned the fact-finding team's failure to meet with Singh's bereaved family members.

"They couldn't be bothered to travel 50 kilometres to the deceased's home in Patna. It speaks volumes about the BJP's apathy towards its own workers," Neeraj Kumar was quoted as saying by PTI.