Under fire Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav defends attack on journo

Patna: Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who has been among headlines following the corruption charges levelled by CBI, on Thursday clarified through a Facebook post that his security officials did not thrash any journalist outside the Bihar Secretariat here, as claimed by several media organisations.

He claimed that the uproar was created due to competitive reporting as journalists had surrounded him so badly when he stepped out of the Secretariat after a cabinet meeting that at a moment around 10 mikes were about to hit his nose.

The 28-year-old politico has been given an ultimatum by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to prove his innocence with facts in public. He defiantly reiterated that he was not going to quit following the corruption allegations that according to him is a conspiracy of the opposition.

"There are misleading information about attack on media persons, on request of them I patiently waited abt 5-7 mins so that they stop meddling with each other out of competition however that was in vein. I totally understand know how difficult is their job, specially the cameramen. They were falling & competing with each other. Couple of media person were putting mike behind me & brushed my ears & head also. There were moments when around ten mikes were about to hit my nose, I saved myself & duty personals were protecting it while being on duty," posted Tejashwi Yadav on Facebook.

Checkout the Facebook post here:

https://www.facebook.com/tejashwiyadav/videos/1550566878299245/

There have been reports that some media persons rushed towards the Bihar Deputy CM when he walked out of the Secretariat. One of the camera persons accidently hit one of his security guards, who with help of a colleague, allegedly dragged him down the stairs and assaulted him. The reports further claimed that the security personnel also thrashed some other reporters who tried to intervene.

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Tejashwi, who is the son of former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, rebuffed the reports that the entire incident took place on his instructions and described the entire episode as "undesirable, baseless & meaningless". He also assured to "personally look into the matter & get it investigated".

It was Tejashwi's first cabinet meeting with Nitish Kumar since Central bureau of Investigation, raided the Yadav family over the charges that during his tenure as Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav had exploited his position to acquire three acres of land in Patna at dream rates.

It is to be mentioned that Tejashwi Yadav is also one of the owners of the land where a shopping mall is being constructed.

The Deputy CM has claimed that as a 13 or 14-year-old boy, he was too young to be dealt like an accused in the case. His father Lalu Yadav has also claimed that the charges are framed against him following a political conspiracy by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

To this argument of Tejashwi, CBI sources have claimed that he has not been made an accused in the case because what his father did as central minister, but because he along with his mother took over a company that was the owner of the land in 2014, and at that time he was 24-year-old.

Earlier in the week, CM Nitish Kumar had said that he would not compromise his zero-tolerance policy against corruption, hinting that he may ask Tejashwi to resign soon.