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Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) chief Upendra Kushwaha with party leaders at Kotwali Police Station where a case was lodged against him, in Patna on Saturday.[/caption]
Patna, Feb. 9 (PTI): The Kotwali police station here witnessed high drama Saturday with RLSP chief and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha claiming he had come to court arrest but the police allowed him to go free, while the police said he was arrested and released on personal bond.
The Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) chief arrived at the police station in the heart of the city along with 200 odd supporters who demanded that besides Kushwaha, the police also take action against them in connection with a clash with the securitymen last week.
Kushwaha severed ties with the BJP and resigned from the Union council of ministers on December 10, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of reducing Cabinet to a “rubber stamp” and “betraying” the backward classes. After 10 days, he joined the Congress-led UPA. After a police lathi charge on him and RLSP workers during a Raj Bhavan march on February 2, an FIR was lodged against Kushwaha and around 200 ‘unnamed’ supporters.
Kushwaha along with some close aides were allowed inside the police station, while others were outside shouting slogans. Gates of the Kotwali police stations remained shut during the period they were inside.
Emerging from the police station, Kushwaha claimed, “I had come here to court arrest since our demand that the cases against us be withdrawn was not heeded by the police. However, when I presented myself before the police, they said they did not want to take any action against me and let me go free.”
The police, however, have a different take on the matter. “He had appeared in keeping with a notice served on him under Section 41 (1) of the CrPC. He was arrested and released upon furnishing a personal bond and a written assurance that he will cooperate with the investigation,” Deputy Superintendent of Police, Law and Order Kotwali, Rakesh Kumar told PTI.
Under Section 41 (1) of the CrPC, a police officer can arrest one person without an order from a magistrate and without a warrant.
The RLSP supporters, who were outside, told reporters that their leader was named in the FIR in which 200 unnamed persons have also been accused of disruption of public order.
“We are here with our details - names and phone numbers - and the police may take whatever action it want against us,” they said.
Kushwaha alleged that the police insisted that RLSP activists had attacked them on February 2 during the March.
“But we had spotted many people who were not our supporters attacking the policemen first to provoke them and later turned against us and attacked us,” Kushwaha said.
The RLSP chief had, earlier this week, alleged that the attackers were goons hired by the ruling JD(U)-BJP combine in Bihar to physically attack him besides defaming his party.
The RLSP’s march was supposed to conclude with the submission before the governor of one crore signatures collected in support of the party’s demand for educational reforms in the state. The RLSP activists were, however, stopped at the Dak Bungalow crossing more than a kilometre away from the Raj Bhavan resulting in the clash which left reportedly 100 persons injured while Kushwaha himself ended up spending two days in the hospital.