Several RJD leaders are likely to be under the police scanner for the violent public protests and attack on Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s cavalcade last month as investigators have found some of the protesters had been talking to these leaders on mobile phones through the day.
After examining the mobile phone call records of at least three people accused of ambushing Mr Kumar’s car and pelting heavy stones at it during his visit to Khagaria on September 27, the SIT probing the incident has reportedly found an incriminating pattern and links between these calls and the attacks. The calls were made to “some senior RJD leaders” including criminal-turned-politician and former MP Pappu Yadav, who is currently in jail after his conviction in a murder case, said SIT sources.
The SIT, which raided a printing press in Patna on Saturday night and arrested a man called Babulal Shourya, has also reportedly found a CD that contains visuals of the attack on Mr Kumar’s car and the scene that followed. The recorded visuals and the conversation alongside have led the SIT to believe that the CD was prepared to be handed over to certain political opponents of the chief minister. The RJD and other Opposition parties have been insisting that the series of public protests Mr Kumar faced during his ongoing Adhikar yatra tour of Bihar, including the protests at Khagaria, were “spontaneous outpouring of people’s anger”. But the JD(U) claimed a day after the Khagaria incident that it was the handiwork of some RJD leaders and that a conspiracy was hatched to assassinate Mr Kumar. Chandan Yadav, member of the RJD’s student wing and the main accused of the Khagaria attacks who is absconding, reportedly called an RJD MP several times during the attacks, the SIT has found from his call records.
Another accused, Manohar Yadav, said to be a member of Pappu Yadav’s organisation Yuva Shakti, called the ex-MP during the attacks.