RASHTRIYA Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday braved water cannons before being detained in Patna, where he was leading thousands of supporters during a march to the Lok Bhavan over the recent police action on students who demonstrated against the NEET paper leak. Yadav, also the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, was bundled into a police van, along with key aides like Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Yadav, and the vehicle took them to an undisclosed location. SSP Kartikeya K Sharma confirmed that Tejashwi Yadav was detained. Police officers, however, were tight-lipped on the whereabouts of the leaders, whose detention left the supporters outraged, with many of them trying to clamber atop the vehicle to prevent it from moving.

 

The RJD’s march is aimed at demanding stern action against police personnel in various districts of the state, especially Siwan, where a constable had allegedly used an AK 47 rifle during the student protests. The constable was suspended days after the July 25 incident and SP Pooran Kumar Jha was transferred on August 18. “Why just a transfer? Both the DM and the SP should have been suspended,” one of the RJD supporters screamed when approached by reporters before the march took off from the JP Golambar, a roundabout named after legendary socialist leader Jay Prakash Narayan.