Midnight Courtroom Drama in Patna It was well past midnight, when a hefty police cavalcade reached a private residence in Patna’s Chhaju Bagh neighbourhood. By the clocks, it was approaching 12.15 AM on Sunday. Travelling in the car was the 38-year-old Tej Pratap Yadav, first son of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and former chief minister Rabri Devi.
It wasn’t a regular courtroom; Tej Pratap was brought directly to the residential presence of a judicial magistrate.
Things went fast once they entered the premises. Before paperwork formalities could even conclude, the magistrate had placed Tej Pratap under judicial custody for 14 days. Police immediately drove him to Beur Central Jail. The jail time was the first in the distinguished 10-plus year political career of the RJD leader, son of former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi.
No bail was awarded to Yadav, and no criminal case filed against him as the drive continued straight to his new temporary address.
Street Drama At Gandhi Maidan To understand how it came to this, one must retrace to the day’s happenings on the streets. Widespread discontent and anger had been seething across Bihar over the paper leak of the NEET-UG medical entrance examinations. Students, particularly Left wing students of the All India Students Association (AISA), had called a statewide Bihar Bandh that saw scores of protesters demonstrating in Gandhi Maidan and other parts of Patna against police high-handedness during the protests and for the resignation of the Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Pradhan later did resign taking moral responsibility of the paper leak controversy. However, Tej Pratap did jump into the fracas quite directly, wading into a rally in the streets in Ram Gulam Chowk near Gandhi Maidan, brandishing the Indian flag high, climbing on the base of the former Prime Minister of Mauritius, Seewoosagur Ramgoolam statue near gate number 10 as a podium, while telling reporters accompanying him that he was with the protesting students and that he was ready to lay his life down for them. What transpired at the site of the demonstration thereafter was chaotic: it quickly devolved into protests turning into a free for all, with stones being hurled at police line, a dozen-odd police vehicles damaged and toppled by unruly demonstrators and a couple of policemen including the officer-in-charge of a police station injuring themselves.
Two Stage Arrest of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Eldest Son; Here’s How It Played Out While Tej Pratap was taken into police custody during the Gandhi Maidan street protests in afternoon on grounds of maintaining public peace, as Tej Pratap had at that moment created nuisance around traffic due to his participation in street demonstrations in the busy area during the state-wide call for closure-of shops on Saturday afternoon, officers took custody and later released him after an hour or so without filing any serious case; at the Gandhi Maidan Police Station police was on its job.
Based on available information officers was looking for Tej Pratap in city from after afternoon with a view to finally arrest him with specific criminal cases based on his participation. As is clear that even while being under custody police teams later were keeping track of him for the entire afternoon. Officers on Saturday evening at around 7.30 PM finally tracked down Tej Pratap in a city mall [City Centre Mall, Patna] and took him away directly from there for arrest to Police Station located at Naubatpur situated on outskirts of city to frame serious criminal case. TheCharges That Landed him into Beur jail
