Yashwant Sinha held for ‘assaulting’ govt official

Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha and 300 other party workers were remanded in judicial custody by a local court on Tuesday after they refused to seek bail in a case of alleged assault of a Jharkhand State Electricity Board official.

Sinha and 300 party workers and leaders were arrested on Monday for allegedly assaulting a Jharkhand State Electricity Board official over a power crisis issue in the state. 

Judicial Magistrate RB Pal sent them to judicial custody for 14 days after Sinha and others refused to take bail.

Sinha and others were arrested on Monday after JSEB’s Hazaribagh branch General Manager Dhanesh Jha filed an FIR, 

accusing them of tying him up during a demonstration on electricity crisis by the BJP’s district unit here.

Incidentally, Sinha admitted before the media of ‘instructing’ the party’s women activists to tie-up JSEB’s Hazaribagh branch General Manager Dhanesh Jha using a rope. 

‘Yes, I have asked them to tie hands of the GM as women are the worst sufferers for not getting power. Their children’s education is also suffering,’ Sinha told reporters. 

According to the police, Sinha and around 300 BJP activists including 50 women, locked office of JSEB, Hazaribagh unit, around 9 am and staged a sit-in and did not let any employee enter the office. 

More than 300 activists, including Sinha, were arrested and lodged at the Sadar police station for allegedly tying up Jha during the agitation, DSP (HQ) Arvind Kumar Singh told reporters here. 

‘It is humiliating and insulting,’ Jha, who filed a FIR against Sinha and others said. 

The deputy SP rescued Jha from the women, who tied his hands and quizzed him why Hazariabagh and Ramgarh districts reeled in power crisis, police said.