Bihar: Days after he ‘raided’ Rudy premises, Pappu Yadav held in 1989 case

The Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) president, who has been very critical of the handling of the pandemic by the NDA government led by Nitish Kumar, has been very active amid the coronavirus surge, visiting hospitals to see they have enough oxygen and that patients are getting beds, intervening if needed. Yadav has also been giving away free oxygen cylinders.

Yadav was arrested from Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH). Police said he did not have permission to be on the premises, and booked him under a bailable section for violating Covid norms. As he was kept at Gandhi Maidan Police Station for several hours, his supporters gathered outside demanding his release.

Later though, the Patna police handed over Yadav to the Madhepura police in connection with a 1989 case of kidnapping and criminal detention, in which a court recently issued a warrant. The Kumarkhand police, Madhepura, said the court had asked police to produce Yadav before it.

Claiming political vendetta, Yadav said, “Since I recently exposed a BJP MP and keep exposing loopholes in the health system, I am being targeted. It is a conspiracy to make me Covid-positive by keeping me in jail.”

A supporter of Rudy had given a complaint to police following Yadav’s “raid”, accusing him of trespassing and vandalising the ambulances. The MP had claimed the ambulances had not been deployed as drivers were not available.

Yadav’s aide Ranjan Yadav said: “The JAP has taken some 80 cylinders on rent and keep replenishing them. We have also distributed over 500 oxygen cylinders and over 400 vials of remdesivir.”