A court in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district on Saturday rejected the anticipatory bail petition of Union minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey’s son in connection with communal clashes in the district, PTI reported.
A case against Arijit Shashwat was filed on March 19, and a Bhagalpur court had issued an arrest warrant against him five days later, but he has not been arrested yet. He had moved an anticipatory bail plea on March 27.
“The court pronounced a one-line order that Arijit Shashwat’s anticipatory bail petition is rejected and fixed a date for pronouncing order for eight other accused persons’ bail plea,” Shashwat’s advocate Viresh Kumar Mishra told PTI.
On March 17, violence had broken out during a procession in Nathnagar during a procession organised by that the Bharatiya Navvarsh Jagran Samiti to mark the Hindu New Year. The procession, led by Shashwat, allegedly passed through at least half-a-dozen Muslim-dominated areas. Authorities said the participants shouted some provocative slogans, which could have triggered the violence.
Choubey and other local BJP leaders claimed that the district administration had allowed the rally. Choubey also denied that provocative slogans were shouted. He called the First Information Report “a piece of garbage” registered by corrupt officers of the area.
Choubey was elected from the Buxar Lok Sabha seat in 2014. His son Shashwat had contested the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections from Bhagalpur on a BJP ticket, but lost to the Congress candidate.
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