Dozens of Rashtriya Janata Dal workers threw stones at the Bharatiya Janata Party’s office in Patna on Wednesday, a day after RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav faced scrutiny in the form of multiple raids by the Income Tax department. The workers damaged property and vehicles in the area, after which the police lathi-charged them.
A group of BJP workers headed to their office when they heard of the agitation, and clashed with the police and RJD members once there, News18 reported. Several were reported injured.
Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, at whom the RJD workers’ protest was largely aimed, called it unacceptable, NDTV reported. Modi had been leading the charge against Yadav by giving the authorities details about several alleged benami land deals connected with the RJD chief.
On Tuesday, the I-T department had conducted 22 raids in and around Dehli in connection with these deals, which are suspected to be worth up to Rs 1,000 crore. A team of around 100 tax officers reportedly searched the offices or residences of some prominent businessmen and real estate agents in those areas.
Yadav, in response, put out a series of tweets taunting the BJP. In one, he called party members literate but uneducated and dared them to disclose the names of the 22 locations where tax raids have been carried out. In another, he said he was neither tired nor defeated, but would instead be a tireless warrior in his fight for the poor.
The raids come only days after the Bharatiya Janata Party accused Yadav and his children of being involved in corrupt land deals. On May 12, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had demanded an inquiry into the land deals related to Yadav’s daughter Misa Bharti. A Rajya Sabha MP, Bharti had failed to disclose these assets in her election affidavit.
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