RJD leader jailed for post on Govt liquor policy: Tejashwi cries foul

The opposition RJD in Bihar was on Wednesday riled by reports of the arrest of one of its leaders last week for putting up an "objectionable and derogatory" post about Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's liquor ban drive on the social media. According to Sumit Kumar, the Deputy Superintendent of Police of Jayanagar in Madhubani district, Sachin Kumar Chaudhary the RJDs district vice-president was arrested on October 25.

"He was arrested for his social media posts, which have since been deleted, which were intemperate, highly objectionable and derogatory. He was sent to jail after being booked under IPC charges pertaining to defamation and the IT Act. The matter has been forwarded to the IT cell of the police department for further investigation," he said. 

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's younger son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav reacted angrily to the media reports about Chaudhary's arrest and alleged on his Twitter handle "Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's close aides consume liquor in violation of the prohibition law. Liquor mafia roams freely in his official residence. Now let the Bihar police arrest me on this account".

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Yadav's comment was apparently in reference to a two-year-old incident of a small-time leader of the JD(U), headed by the chief minister, named as accused in a hooch tragedy that preceded the liquor ban introduced in 2016, meeting Kumar at his official residence as part of a delegation. After the photograph went viral, the JD(U) had come out with a clarification that the person in question had been removed from the party and he might have gained entry into 1, Anney Marg, the CM residence, as a result of an oversight.

Ban on sale and consumption of liquor was imposed in the state while the RJD was part of the ruling coalition and Yadav the Deputy CM. The measure was taken after Kumar promised the same during the campaign for assembly polls held the previous year in response to complaints from various women's organizations that the state had witnessed a mushrooming of liquor shops, giving rise to social and economic problems associated with the drunkenness of menfolk.

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