Ward councillor who moved ‘aggressively’ towards Union minister Giriraj Singh beaten up, held in Bihar

Unsatisfied with the local MP’s replies, Saifi started arguing with Giriraj Singh and told him, “You are our MP, and you have to listen to our problems.” When Singh rose to leave the venue, Saifi wanted to go near the MP. When stopped by security personnel, he started raising “murdabad” slogans against Giriraj Singh, said the police.

A viral video showed some people roughed up Saifi, who was earlier associated with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Later, the police took him into custody for questioning and then released him.

Begusarai Superintendent of Police Manish Kumar said, “When Mohammed Saifi was trying to approach the Union minister forcibly, we stopped him. He was raising slogans against the minister. We took him into our custody for law and order reasons”.

Giriraj Singh later alleged that the man had been shouting “murdabad” slogans against him “aggressively advancing towards him”. “It looked as if he wanted to hit me. But leaders like Tejashwi and Akhilesh would not say anything on the act of a bearded man,” he said, implying that Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav and former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP) would not act against Muslims.

In response to Giriraj Singh’s remark, RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari told The Indian Express: “Though it is up to the police to find out what happened, it does not look proper on the part of the BJP leader to see everything through a Hindu-Muslim prism. A ward councillor can argue with his local MP.”