JD-U Hammers RJD over Bhagalpur Riot Accused Issue
Patna: Nov. 29, 2007
Janata Dal (U) national general secretary Shivanand Tiwari and former minister Fayyaz Bhagalpuri on Thursday stuck to their earlier statement that Kameshwar Yadav, the chief accused in the 1989 Bhagalpur riots, was in fact an Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) insider and had been sheltered by the party president and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
"Yadav not only moved around with the Bhagalpur accused freely, he did everything in his might to ensure Kameshwar Yadav was protected from the long arms of the law," Tiwari said at a press conference at the JD-U party office in Patna.
"This is a well-known fact and those who live in Bhagalpur are quite aware of it. No amount of denial is going to change that fact," Fayyaz Bhagalpuri said adding that the RJD's demand to present evidence to back up the accusation was absolutely ridiculous.
Bhagalpuri, who was a minister in the Lalu cabinet, said he saw it with his own eyes how Lalu Prasad Yadav went out of his way to ensure Kameshwar Yadav was never punished for his crime and even flew with him from Patna to Bhagalpur in the government chopper.
Narrating an incident that took place in 1990, Bhagalpuri said that once he went to meet the RJD chief at his official residence in Patna and saw a man in long beard and a cap. He was introduced to him as Kameshwar Yadav.
"Lalu then told me that Kameshwar Yadav has been 'washed and purified' and I should now forgive him to which I said that no one in his right mind would ever forgive him for the atrocities he committed on the minorities of Bihar," Bhagalpuri said.
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